Financial Services Reform Act 2001 (122 of 2001)

Schedule 1   Financial Services and Markets

Part 1   Main amendments

Corporations Act 2001

1   Chapter 7 - Part 7.7 - Division 6

Division 6 - Miscellaneous

951A Part cannot be contracted out of

A condition of a contract for the acquisition of a financial product, or for the provision of a financial service, is void if it provides that a party to the contract is:

(a) required or bound to waive compliance with any requirement of this Part; or

(b) taken to have notice of any contract, document or matter not specifically referred to in a Financial Services Guide, Statement of Advice or other document given to the party.

951B Exemptions and modifications by ASIC

(1) ASIC may, subject to subsection (2):

(a) exempt a person or a class of persons from all or specified provisions of this Part; or

(b) exempt a financial product or class of financial products from all or specified provisions of this Part; or

(c) declare that this Part applies in relation to a person or a financial product, or a class of persons or financial products, as if specified provisions of this Part were omitted, modified or varied as specified in the declaration.

(2) However, ASIC cannot declare that provisions of this Part are modified so that they apply in relation to persons or financial products to which they would not otherwise apply.

(3) An exemption may apply unconditionally or subject to specified conditions. A person to whom a condition specified in an exemption applies must comply with the condition. The Court may order the person to comply with the condition in a specified way. Only ASIC may apply to the Court for the order.

(4) An exemption or declaration must be in writing and ASIC must publish notice of it in theGazette.

(5) If conduct (including an omission) of a person would not have constituted an offence if a particular declaration under paragraph (1)(c) had not been made, that conduct does not constitute an offence unless, before the conduct occurred (in addition to complying with the gazettal requirement of subsection (4)):

(a) the text of the declaration was made available by ASIC on the Internet; or

(b) ASIC gave written notice setting out the text of the declaration to the person.

In a prosecution for an offence to which this subsection applies, the prosecution must prove that paragraph (a) or (b) was complied with before the conduct occurred.

(6) For the purpose of this section, the provisions of this Part include:

(a) definitions in this Act, or in the regulations, as they apply to references in this Part; and

(b) any provisions of Part 10.2 (transitional provisions) that relate to provisions of this Part.