GRC Report Staff

The FMA's Banking Distribution Report 2026 shows securities accounts at Austrian credit institutions rose 14% to 2.87 million, driven largely by digital models and branches of foreign (European) providers. Investment services complaints jumped 70%, and the FMA signaled a level playing field in supervision, closer home-country supervisor cooperation, and enhanced consumer lending powers from November 2026. Compliance teams should treat this as an indicator of where supervisory attention is heading.

The PCAOB has named Addison (Addi) Scott and Zian Xi as its first Audit Practitioner Fellows within the Office of the Chief Auditor. Each will serve a two-year term supporting standard-setting and research, with recent big-firm audit experience informing the Board's agenda. The appointments are not a rule change, but they signal that upcoming standards will draw on practitioner input and aim to balance audit quality against costs and benefits.

ASIC's Form 509 is the statutory summary of a company's affairs, lodged under section 497(1)(a)(i) of the Corporations Act 2001 when a company is wound up by creditors' voluntary liquidation. It must be lodged within 10 business days of the winding-up resolution meeting, together with Form 5604. Compliance teams should treat it as a routine procedural form rather than a new regulatory change, because the content is a form template dated 1 September 2017 and carries a 2026-09-15 date in the feed.

The ECB's Q2 2026 supervisory statistics for 108 significant institutions show capital at 16.00% CET1 and 20.13% total capital, with return on equity rising to 10.73%. Liquidity and funding ratios remain well above minimums but have eased year over year. This is a statistical release, not a new rule, but it gives compliance and risk teams useful peer benchmarks ahead of supervisory dialogue.

ASIC's Form 370 gives resigning or retiring company officeholders an optional way to notify ASIC directly of their departure, provided they attach a copy of their resignation letter. The 28-day lodgement window determines which cessation date ASIC records for a director, so timing matters for governance and liability. Note that the document is dated February 2021 and is a form with its guide, not a new rule or amendment.

The Companies Auditors Disciplinary Board (CADB) suspended former PKF Brisbane Audit partner Cameron Bradley until 30 June 2028, effective 15 September 2026. It also reprimanded him and ordered undertakings and costs. The decision found fundamental failures in the audits of three managed investment schemes and reinforces ASIC's focus on audit quality, valuation practices, and auditor misconduct, particularly in private markets.

The Belgian Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) released a new version of its consumer-facing tool for comparing the costs of supplementary pension products. The tool benchmarks a product's costs against the average for similar products, which increases fee transparency and the likelihood that outliers will draw scrutiny. Compliance teams at pension product providers and distributors should review their cost disclosures and pricing against these benchmarks.