LAWS8026 Banking and Finance Law
The Complete Study & Assessment Guide · T3 2026LAWS8026 Overview
- Term 3 2026
- Postgraduate law
- Research essay focus
- Weekly practitioner seminars
A transactional course in Australian banking and finance law
Banking and Finance Law at UNSW Sydney explores the law and practice of banking and finance through the transactions that lawyers actually document.
- Know the counterparty Identify the borrower's legal form and source of power before reading any loan term.
- Read clauses by timing Representations look back, undertakings look forward and defaults decide when funding stops.
- Plan for failure Security, subordination, netting and insolvency-remote vehicles all answer what happens if a party fails.
- Argue, do not describe The essay rewards a bounded proposition on Australian law that meets its strongest objection.
How LAWS8026 is assessed
| Component | Weight | Format |
|---|---|---|
| Class Participation | 20% | Individual; volunteered comments and responses in each class, Weeks 1 to 10; attendance alone earns no marks |
| Research Essay Plan | 20% | Individual; up to 1,000 words via Turnitin; short extension available |
| Research Essay | 60% | Individual; up to 6,000 words via Turnitin; due date set by the examination centre |
The UNSW Handbook 2026 record, the Moodle assessment summary and the course information agree on all three weights. The Research Essay Plan date differs by a day between the Class 1 slides, which give 15 October 2026, and the Turnitin assignment, which shows 16 October 2026 at 9pm. The Research Essay date will be set by the examination centre and announced on Moodle.
Assessment structure
Segment widths are proportional to the published weights in the UNSW Handbook 2026 entry: class participation 20%, research essay plan 20% and research essay 60%.
Current LAWS8026 dates
| Date | Item | Control |
|---|---|---|
| 16 October 2026, 9pm | Research Essay Plan | Turnitin due date; the Class 1 slides give 15 October 2026 with a three-day short extension. |
Dates are as published in the Term 3 2026 Moodle course and the Class 1 slides. Confirm exact deadlines and submission settings in the live LMS.
What LAWS8026 covers
Thirteen chapters follow the ten Term 3 seminars, from the regulators and loan documentation through syndicates, security, asset, project and capital markets finance to securitisation, insolvency, derivatives and the research essay.
Banking Regulators and the Twin Peaks Model
ASIC and APRA as the two peaks, the RBA and AUSTRAC, defining a bank and the Wallis readingsAustralian banks answer to more than one regulator, and the course asks you to explain why.
- Conduct and prudential supervision as two peaks
- ASIC licences and consumer protection
- APRA, ADI licences and depositor safety
- The RBA, payments and Exchange Settlement Accounts
- AUSTRAC and anti-money laundering supervision
- Defining a bank and the Wallis Inquiry readings
Corporate Authority and Lending to Trusts
ultra vires and section 125, the statutory assumptions, corporate benefit, borrower identity and lending to trusteesBefore a lender reads its own loan terms, it must know who is borrowing and whether that entity can bind itself.
- Who is borrowing: companies, trusts, partnerships, joint ventures
- Ultra vires and section 125
- Statutory assumptions under sections 128 and 129
- Knowing or suspecting an irregularity
- Corporate benefit and section 187
- Lending to a trustee and subrogation
Loan Documentation and Events of Default
loan mechanics, conditions precedent, term and revolving facilities, negative undertakings and default triggersA loan agreement reduces to a promise to advance money, a promise to repay it and a duty to pay interest; everything else manages the risk that one of those promises fails.
- The core promises of a loan agreement
- Conditions precedent to first and later drawdowns
- Representations and why banks repeat them
- General and negative undertakings
- Events of default, cross default and the MAC clause
- Term and revolving, amortising and bullet facilities
Bilateral and Syndicated Lending
syndicates and agents, bank debt, bilateral facilities, common terms structures and acquisition financeMost corporate funding starts as bank debt, and Class 2 asks how it changes when more than one bank lends.
- Bank debt as the most common funding form
- Bilateral facilities and credit support
- Syndicates: several obligations and the agent
- Pari passu sharing and majority decisions
- Common terms deeds and security trustees
- Acquisition finance, Bidco and intercreditor terms
Security, Guarantees and Credit Support
contractual protection versus proprietary security, guarantees and neighbouring instruments, subordination and rankingClass 3 asks when a financier should insist on proprietary security rather than contractual protection, and what a borrower's willingness to give security signals.
- Contractual protection and the negative pledge
- Proprietary security over specific or all assets
- What offering security signals about a borrower
- Guarantees as secondary obligations
- Indemnities, letters of credit, comfort letters and bonds
- Subordination compared with secured ranking
Structured and Asset Financing
Cape Town Convention, trade and resource finance, export credit agencies and Australia's declarationsClass 4 covers finance built around an asset or a flow of goods: trade finance, export credit agencies, resource financing and the financing of high-value mobile equipment.
- Trade finance parties and international rules
- Export credit agencies in export financing
- Resource financing and its documentation
- Types of asset financing
- The Cape Town Convention and the Aircraft Protocol
- Reading Australia's declarations
Project and Infrastructure Financing
the project SPV, limited recourse, risk allocation, layered debt and public-private partnershipsProject finance lends against one project's cashflows rather than a whole company's balance sheet.
- The five features of project finance
- The SPV and limited recourse
- Sponsors, government and contract counterparties
- Senior, subordinated and agency-supported debt
- Security over project assets and sponsors' shares
- Public-private partnerships and concession risk
Debt Capital Markets and Hybrid Securities
domestic, foreign and international markets, bond and bank terms compared, issue documents and hybridsA bond reverses the bank relationship: the issuer borrows from investors, pays regular interest and repays principal at maturity.
- Domestic, foreign and international markets
- Euromarkets and their defining features
- Onshore and offshore debt products
- Bond and bank terms compared
- Issue documentation by product
- Hybrid securities and their benefits
Securitisation and the Insolvency-Remote SPV
originators, the SPV and investors, legal or equitable assignment and APRA's roleSecuritisation separates a pool of receivables from the business that created them and uses the pool to support securities sold to investors.
- Originator, SPV and investors
- Benefits for different originators
- Investor appeal after the Global Financial Crisis
- Why the SPV must be insolvency-remote
- Legal and equitable assignment of receivables
- APRA's role and prudential standard APS 120
Insolvency Issues in Financing Transactions
the insolvency test, voidable transactions, director misconduct, procedures and restructuringInsolvency is where loan protections are tested.
- Factors in deciding insolvency
- Unfair preferences and who they protect
- Uncommercial transactions, unfair loans and director-related deals
- Director misconduct before insolvency
- Administration, receivership and liquidation compared
- Creditor-led restructuring options
Derivatives, Set-off and Netting
derivative types, ISDA documentation, credit default swaps and insurance, set-off and close-out nettingThe final seminar connects derivatives to insolvency.
- What a derivative is and its main types
- Why financiers use derivatives
- ISDA documentation and negotiated terms
- Credit default swaps and insurance
- Global reform of OTC derivatives
- Insolvency set-off and close-out netting
Private Credit and Emerging Finance Regulation
market size estimates, ASIC's private credit concerns and the 2026 research essay topicsThe research essay focuses on current regulatory developments, and this chapter prepares the ground.
- Market size estimates for 2025
- Private credit on the funding map
- ASIC's private credit concerns
- The four 2026 research essay topics
- Choosing a topic by its primary sources
- Scoping a regulator's concern into an aim
Planning and Writing the Research Essay
the five-part plan, stating a proposition, the marking criteria, word count and submission rulesEighty per cent of the grade rests on the research essay plan and the research essay, both on one topic and both submitted through Turnitin.
- Plan and essay on the same topic
- The five parts of the sample plan
- Stating a proposition with an objection
- The plan and essay marking criteria
- What the word limits count
- Format, AGLC citation and integrity rules
It is taught primarily by specialist practitioners from Mallesons in ten weekly seminars, and it is aimed at students building professional skills in modern finance practice in Australia and abroad.
The course information lists its main topics as financial regulation, security and guarantees, insolvency, securitisation, derivatives and netting, project and infrastructure financing, debt capital markets, bilateral and multi-lender financing, structured and asset financing, and the everyday pitfalls of finance law.
How the seminars build
The first class sets the frame: the regulators who supervise Australian banks, the kinds of borrower a lender meets, and the anatomy of a loan agreement, from conditions precedent through representations, undertakings and events of default.
The following classes move outward from bilateral and syndicated lending to security and guarantees, asset and structured finance under the Cape Town Convention, project finance, debt capital markets and hybrid securities, and securitisation.
The final classes return to regulation, then to insolvency and to derivatives, set-off and netting, the doctrines that decide what a lender recovers when a counterparty fails.
What the assessment rewards
All three tasks reward argument. Participation is marked on what you contribute in class, not on attendance.
The plan and the essay, worth 80% together, require a critical legal analysis of one of four current regulatory controversies: private credit, tokenised bank deposits, agentic AI in banking and the 2026 digital assets framework. This toolkit pairs every seminar with a worked model answer and practice prompts, and closes with a chapter on planning, citing and submitting the essay.
Worked example · free
Trace a negative pledge breach through a loan agreement
- +1Classify the clauses: the negative pledge is an undertaking, the ownership statement is a representation.
- +1Check whether the supplier's interest is a Permitted Encumbrance before calling it a breach.
- +1Explain that breach of an undertaking is a standard event of default.
- +1Show that the repeated representation is untrue at the new drawdown, so that condition precedent fails.
- +1Quote the default clause, including any grace period, before advising acceleration.
Key terms
- Twin peaks model
- A twin peaks model divides financial supervision between a prudential regulator and a separate conduct regulator.
- Authorised deposit-taking institution
- An authorised deposit-taking institution is an entity licensed by APRA to carry on banking business in Australia.
- Statutory assumptions
- Statutory assumptions are the presumptions of regularity a person dealing with a company may make unless it knew or suspected they were wrong.
- Corporate benefit
- Corporate benefit is the requirement that a company granting a guarantee or security receives a benefit from doing so.
- Conditions precedent
- Conditions precedent are requirements a borrower must satisfy before the lender is obliged to fund a drawing.
- Negative pledge
- A negative pledge is a borrower's undertaking not to create security interests other than those the facility permits.
- Event of default
- An event of default is a listed circumstance that allows the lender to suspend funding and accelerate repayment.
- Syndicated facility
- A syndicated facility is one loan agreement under which several banks lend, each for its own commitment, through an agent.
- Limited recourse
- Limited recourse means the lenders can look only to the project's cashflows and assets for repayment.
- Insolvency-remote SPV
- An insolvency-remote SPV is a special purpose vehicle structured so that an originator's failure cannot reach its assets.
- Close-out netting
- Close-out netting ends open transactions on a default and combines their values into one net amount.
- International interest
- An international interest is the interest in high-value mobile equipment that the Cape Town Convention recognises and records in its International Registry.
- Hybrid security
- A hybrid security is an instrument that combines features of debt and equity in one issue.
- Private credit
- Private credit is lending by non-bank investors and funds outside public markets.
LAWS8026 FAQ
How hard is Banking and Finance Law in concrete terms?
The difficulty is breadth and transactional detail rather than calculation. Ten seminars cover regulation, loan documentation, syndicates, security, asset and project finance, capital markets, securitisation, insolvency and derivatives.
Assessment rests on argument: a research essay plan of up to 1,000 words, an essay of up to 6,000 words on one current regulatory topic, and participation marks earned only by contributing in class.
Is Banking and Finance Law assessed by exam or by essay?
The UNSW Handbook 2026 entry and the course information publish three tasks: class participation worth 20%, a research essay plan worth 20% and a research essay worth 60%. The essay's due date is to be set by the examination centre, so it falls around the end-of-term period, but it is written coursework submitted through Turnitin rather than a sit-down paper. Check Moodle announcements for the confirmed date.
How is class participation marked?
Participation is marked on volunteered comments and responses to questions discussed in class, against eight published criteria including preparation, frequency, quality, comprehension, respect for other views, clarity, initiative and engagement. Attendance alone earns nothing. Absences up to one fifth of timetabled classes do not count against you, and there is no online option for the seminars.
What are the research essay topics this term?
The topic sheet offers four questions: whether Australian law adequately addresses challenges in the private credit sector, whether the framework accommodates tokenised bank deposits, whether it addresses agentic AI in banking, and whether the 2026 digital assets legislation is appropriate. Each asks for critical legal analysis of the Australian framework, using international material only to inform that analysis.
What does a strong research essay plan contain?
The course's sample plan suggests a title, the aims and scope of the essay, a stated proposition with the strongest objection and your response, a research approach naming specific primary and secondary sources, and an outline. You need not use those headings. Markers reward clear scope, an argued position, located sources, correct AGLC citation and independent thinking within the 1,000-word limit.
Can I use AI tools for the written assessments?
No for drafting or research. The course information states that generative AI may not be used to undertake research or structure an answer for the plan or the essay, and the Moodle table marks both as No Assistance. Standard editing software is allowed. A study guide or tutor can help you understand banking law concepts, but the analysis and words you submit must be your own.
Which readings matter most for the seminars?
The main text is the King and Wood Mallesons Australian Finance Law, seventh edition, assigned by chapter for each class, with Didenko's Banking Law in Australia and the McCracken text recommended. Class 4 adds the Cape Town Convention, its Aircraft Protocol, the 2013 implementing Act and a 2022 High Court decision. All required readings are on the Leganto list in Moodle.
Questions students ask in each LAWS8026 chapter
- Why does Australia split banking supervision between two agencies?
- The split gives each principal regulator one dominant objective. APRA judges financial soundness and depositor safety, while ASIC judges conduct and consumer protection. A seminar answer should explain that benefit and then test it against the coordination problems that arise when one firm's failure touches both mandates. Chapter 01 · Banking Regulators and the Twin Peaks Model
- Can a company escape a loan because it was beyond its objects clause?
- Not for that reason alone if it is a Corporations Act company. Section 125 stops a company's use of a power being invalid simply because it conflicts with, or falls outside, its objects clause. Statutory corporations and other bodies remain a different case, so identify the entity type first. Chapter 02 · Corporate Authority and Lending to Trusts
- What is the difference between a representation and an undertaking?
- A representation is about facts that exist or have taken place when it is made; an undertaking concerns what the borrower will or will not do in future. Both can feed into an event of default, but they protect different moments in the life of the loan. Chapter 03 · Loan Documentation and Events of Default
- Why would a borrower choose a bilateral facility over a syndicate?
- A bilateral facility keeps the relationship simple: one lender, no priority or voting issues, and a bank that is expected to keep the loan rather than sell it. A syndicate offers larger amounts but brings coordination through an agent and decisions that may need a majority or every lender. Chapter 04 · Bilateral and Syndicated Lending
- Is a borrower that offers security weak?
- Not necessarily. The opening seminar describes whether a facility is secured as a function of history, such as newly listed or privatised entities, and of leverage and distress. Test the facts rather than reading security as a signal on its own. Chapter 05 · Security, Guarantees and Credit Support
- Why can the PPSA alone not protect an aircraft financier?
- The PPSA is a domestic regime, while an aircraft moves between legal systems whose courts apply their own law to goods located there. The Convention responds with an international interest recorded in one International Registry, and the class asks what follows from failing to register it. Chapter 06 · Structured and Asset Financing
- How does project finance differ from corporate lending?
- Corporate lending has full recourse to an existing business with a track record. Project finance lends to an SPV for a discrete project, mostly with external debt, and the lenders' recourse is limited to the project's cashflows and assets, so risk allocation in the documents becomes central. Chapter 07 · Project and Infrastructure Financing
- What are the main differences between a bond and a bank loan?
- Bonds are negotiable and held by many, often anonymous, investors, with minimal covenants, issue-date representations and lighter default terms. Bank loans have known lenders, restrictions on transfer, repeating representations, extensive undertakings and protections such as default interest, increased costs and set-off. Chapter 08 · Debt Capital Markets and Hybrid Securities
- Why must a securitisation SPV be insolvency-remote?
- Investors price the notes on the receivables alone. If the originator's liquidator could claim the pool, or the SPV itself could fail because of other creditors, the investors' protection would disappear, so the structure isolates the pool from both risks. Chapter 09 · Securitisation and the Insolvency-Remote SPV
- Is a secured lender unaffected by its borrower's insolvency?
- No. The opening seminar tells lenders to choose security with administration risk in mind, a guarantee from an insolvent subsidiary falls outside section 187, and Class 9 asks which procedure suits different creditors. Security improves a lender's position but does not settle every outcome. Chapter 10 · Insolvency Issues in Financing Transactions
- Why does close-out netting matter in insolvency?
- Netting turns many open positions into one net amount. Without it, a solvent party could have to pay what it owes the insolvent party in full while proving for what it is owed alongside unsecured creditors, so recognition of netting sharply reduces exposure. Chapter 11 · Derivatives, Set-off and Netting
- Which essay topic should I choose?
- Choose the topic whose primary material you can locate quickly. The sample plan says a plan naming particular reports, cases or provisions beats one that only gestures at relevant laws, and the plan fixes your topic for the essay, so read all four before committing. Chapter 12 · Private Credit and Emerging Finance Regulation
- Must I follow the sample plan's headings?
- No. The course says the sample is only a guide and that a plan that handles the key components in its own structure and words will earn more than one copying the prompts without real thinking. What matters is scope, proposition, sources and outline. Chapter 13 · Planning and Writing the Research Essay
How to prepare for the assessments
Prepare for each seminar as if you will be asked to speak first. Read the matching chapter of this toolkit, then the assigned chapters of the main text, and write a two-sentence answer to each set question that takes a position and names its support. Bring those answers to class: participation is marked on contributions, and a prepared answer that responds to what others have said meets several criteria at once.
Keep a running file for your essay topic from the first weeks, recording each primary source with its pinpoint and one sentence on what it proves. Use the Class 1 material on borrowers and loan mechanics as a toolkit you return to, because representations, undertakings, security and insolvency questions all depend on it.
When you draft, test every paragraph against the published rubric for argument, research and analysis, and keep the 6,000-word limit in view from the outline stage rather than cutting at the end. Ask Sia to explain a doctrine or check your reasoning on a practice problem, never to write assessed work.
Your AI Law tutor for LAWS8026
Stuck on a hard LAWS8026 question? Sia is AskSia’s AI Law tutor — ask any LAWS8026 Banking and Finance Law question and get a clear, step-by-step explanation grounded in how the course is actually taught and assessed. Read this whole study guide free, then take your hardest questions to Sia.
