HSBC in scam fight

G’day.

Welcome to Point Blank.

Today’s brief:

• ASIC sues HSBC over scam investigation delays.

• Swiss Vereins lose favour in recent mergers.

• Lawyer hiring for 2024 fell at Aussie law firms.

It’s our last Monday of the year, as we begin works on a little refresh over the Christmas break 👀 

Don’t fret, we’ve got you covered this week 👇

 💼 Practice Points

• ASIC is taking HSBC Australia to court over scam response delays. The watchdog accuses the bank of dragging its feet on nearly 1000 suspicious activity reports. The ‘systematic’ scam failures, ASIC alleges, led customers to lose an average of $90k each, while HSBC allegedly took a staggering 145 days to investigate unauthorised behaviour.

• In building contracts, owners must give builders a reasonable chance to fix defects but aren't obliged to compel rectification. As Ceerose confirms, an owner must avoid acting unreasonably or hindering the builder’s efforts. The Court identified four factors to assess if an owner is unreasonable: the seriousness of the defects, the quality of rectification, the builder's engagement with the defects, and the utility in continuing negotiations with the builder.

• Westpac has scored a win in the Forum Finance saga, where $500m was siphoned through fraud across Australia and NZ. Westpac and other financiers sought relief against recipients and participants with knowledge of the fraud. The Federal Court ruled in favour of Westpac and other financiers, granting rights to both personal and proprietary relief against those involved or holding assets linked to the stolen funds.

🏘️ Word on the Street 

• After nearly five years of frenzied hiring, the country’s biggest law firms are finally trimming their lawyer headcount. In the last six months, 7 out of 8 of the top firms have seen a drop in lawyer numbers (excluding partners). But don’t worry, no mass layoffs in sight. Firms aren’t actively slashing jobs—they’re just quietly scaling back some of the lucrative incentives, like sign-on bonuses and expedited pay hikes. Here’s a breakdown 👇

• With scaled-back hiring for the last 6 months, perhaps a few end-of-year additions can’t hurt.

  • Those from KWM’s employment poach from Corrs have all started at the firm, which includes 6 partners, 12 lawyers and a strategic counsel.

  • Moray & Agnew adds a new medical negligence partner.

  • And HWL Ebsworth has spread the Christmas cheer with 43 promotions.

📢 Talking Points

• Nearly two decades after their arrests rocked Australia-Indonesia relations, five Bali Nine members are back on home soil. The group was caught trying to smuggle 8kg of heroin out of Bali in 2005.

• In a 204-85 vote, South Korea's National Assembly impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol less than two weeks after he shocked the nation by briefly imposing martial law. He's not officially out yet—the court has up to 180 days to determine whether to dismiss him or restore his powers.

• Are Swiss Vereins on the way out? Firms like Dentons, Baker McKenzie, and DLA Piper have long used the model, where each constituent partnership operates as a separate entity with its own profit pool but shares resources, branding, and strategy. It’s a structure that offers tax efficiency, rapid global expansion, and flexibility in M&A—allowing firms to join or leave without major restructuring. However, recent mergers—like A&O Shearman and HSF Kramer—have bypassed the Swiss Verein. One key drawback? A fragmented culture. With each firm operating independently, aligning strategies, managing conflicts, and executing firmwide initiatives becomes a logistical nightmare.

• The Coalition’s long-awaited nuclear proposal dropped on Friday, but it’s already facing backlash for its assumptions. The plan claims a $263bn cost advantage over Labor's renewable policy, but that gap narrows when you factor in Coalition's questionable assumptions like its prediction that electricity demand will be over 40% lower than what's in Labor’s plan.

🏦 The Treasury

• Chalmers warns of budget headwinds with China’s slowdown and weaker domestic growth than expected. The government will downgrade mining exports and revise company tax receipts in Wednesday’s Fiscal Outlook – mining exports are projected to fall by over $100bn across the next four years.

🤝 Deal Room

• Shareholders have given the green light to the mega-merger between global infrastructure giant IFM Investors and industry super fund property platform ISPT, creating a $240bn funds behemoth.

• Chemist Warehouse is gearing up for a backdoor listing through its $30bn merger with Sigma Healthcare, but the spotlight’s on the 84% of its revenue tied up in related party transactions. To address the concerns, the companies have set up an independent board committee to oversee related party arrangements and require that an independent expert consider whether these transactions are fair and reasonable. This is all a bit unorthodox—most advisers the AFR spoke to can't recall seeing anything like it. Whether it’s enough to resolve the concerns remains to be seen.

• Bain Capital’s $2.7bn bid for Insignia Financial may start a bidding war. Potential rivals include PE firms Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, CC Capital, TA Associates, PAG, EQT, and Ares Management.

• Sojitz is teaming up with Japan Airlines to make a bid for North Queensland Airports, the holding company behind Cairns and Mackay airports.

• SEQ Hospitality Group has increased its offer to swoop up Eumundi Group Limited from $1.55 to $1.62 per Eumundi share under the off-market takeover and proposed scheme.

🏗 Sector Specific

Diggers

• MinRes and CEO Chris Ellison are facing a $600k lawsuit after allegedly giving in-house counsel Courtney Kelley the boot for raising "cultural issues" at work. Kelley claims she was terminated because Ellison feared she'd blow the whistle on the company.

• Back in June 2022, Evolution Mining admitted delays to its Red Lake transformation plan—just 3 months after assuring everyone the project was "on track" and "progressing well." Now, the gold miner is facing a shareholder class action over alleged disclosure failures. Echo Law is leading the class action, while Allens is defending Evolution.

• Mining giant South32 has secured tentative backing from WA’s environment minister to extend the life of its Worsley Alumina project, despite the EPA’s objections.

Fin

• ANZ is putting staff on notice: leak to the media, and you could be out of a job. Employees are being warned that spilling bank secrets is considered a breach of its code of conduct and raises privacy issues.

• Imagine being asked to work while on leave. And then being fired over it. An executive at fin services firm, Amalgamated Australian Investment Group is claiming she was hit with an anonymous and vague performance investigation, only to be swiftly fired after refusing a directive to work while on personal leave.

Tech & Media

• A jury at Melbourne’s County Court has cleared ex-Vocus chairman Vaughan Bowen of two counts of insider trading after a lengthy five-week trial on whether he was tipped off about a failed takeover before selling $25m worth of shares.

• A US appeals court has rejected TikTok's emergency bid to temporarily block a law forcing ByteDance to divest TikTok or face a ban. With the clock ticking, TikTok now has to scramble to take its case to the Supreme Court.

Retail & Real Estate

• ASIC has launched a formal investigation into Kogan.com after the CEO and CFO pocketed $17m from a controversial options deal just weeks before a 27.5% share price plunge.

• Brookfield’s dealmakers are back, targeting a minority stake in Loscam’s Asia Pacific business after the auction stalled. Known for its wooden pallets and warehouse essentials, Loscam serves major retailers across Asia. The AFR reckons Brookfield’s talks with owners China Merchants Group, Citic Capital, and Fountainvest Partners could seal a pre-Christmas deal.

🧠 Word Guess

• A ceremony to bring forth the true character (9).