Online Trading and Free Speech:
Should Internet Financial Advice be Regulated?

Prof. Dimity Kingsford-Smith, UNSW

Tuesday 10 May 2005

1:00 to 2:00 pm, including time for questions .

Law Common Room, 11th floor, Library Tower Stage 2
UNSW Kensington campus, Sydney
Map: http://www.unsw.edu.au/maps/kensington.pdf

Abstract:

As a result of privatisations and greater interest in personal finance, approximately half of all adult Australians hold company shares. Approximately a million Australians have an account with an online broker, who provides both information and investment tools to assist investors with ‘buy’, ‘sell’ and ‘hold’ decisions.

From July 2005 virtually all employed Australians will be able to choose to which fund their employer makes superannuation contributions on their behalf. The superannuation industry makes most of its product disclosure information available online, along with calculators to assist investors with their choice of fund.

General financial advice of this sort raises the financial capability of investors, but are there hidden traps? Should such financial advice be regulated, and if so how might it best be done?

Dimity Kingsford Smith joined the UNSW Law Faculty in January 2005. From 2000-2004 she was professor of law and Director of the Centre for Law in the Digital Economy at Monash University, and has previously held appointments at the University of Sydney and at University College London and Warwick University in the UK.

Dimity is one of Australia's foremost authorities on the regulation of securities and financial products and theories of regulation, and she has published widely in these areas. She is currently the chief investigator in an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant examining the regulation of online investing.

Dimity also researches and teaches in the areas of corporate governance, women and retirement income and the globalisation of regulation. She is a member of a number of academic committees and societies within Australia and overseas, and a media commentator on Australian financial regulation policy and institutions.

Entry is free. If you are coming from off Campus please RSVP to feedback [at] cyberlawcentre.org.