The Limits of Disclosure: Private Rights, Public Duties and the Search for Accountable Governance

Overview

Project status: In progress

The primary aim of the research project is to build public confidence and trust in mechanisms designed to develop and maintain effective financial product markets. Specifically, it tests the limits of disclosure-based solutions for retail and wholesale investors across a range of product classes, from relatively simple to complex financial products. A second order project aim is to develop robust criteria for what are complex and what are simple products and identify where disclosure is more and less effective accordingly.

The research will generate a cohesive pre-emptive, dynamic and responsive framework to the questions of appropriate standards of accountability in financial product governance with international applicability.

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Grantor
Australian Research Council - Linkage Grant
Research team
QUT External collaborators Justin O'Brien
Organisational unit
Lead unit Law and Justice Research Centre Other units
Research area
Commercial and property law
 

Details

A reliance on technical considerations such as enhanced disclosure, literacy programs and attempts to bifurcate between sophisticated and unsophisticated investors has each proved sub-optimal in the search for greater, or more accurately, effective accountability both here in Australia and internationally. The acceptance by the corporate sector to process risk allocation, develop a mutually endorsed formal and informal regulatory framework and agree on clear and transparent roles and responsibilities marks a significant step forward. It is both significant and innovative that the design and implementation of the proposed strategic plan will derive from an extended exercise in deliberative democracy.