2026 prize
“Wisdom of the Crowds: Prediction Markets and the Regulation of Betting and Derivatives in Australia”
Kevin Liu is a financial market infrastructure lawyer and an independent researcher. Congratulations to Kevin on winning the BFSLA Research Essay Prize for 2026.
Highly commended
“The Final Countdown: The Case for Modernising Australia’s Settlement Finality Laws”
Western Sydney University
Highly Commended in the 2026 BFSLA Research Essay Prize for “The Final Countdown: The Case for Modernising Australia’s Settlement Finality Laws”.
Western Sydney University
“Quit those trusts! The case against the ‘Quistclose trust’ in New Zealand”
Victoria University of Wellington
Highly Commended in the 2026 BFSLA Research Essay Prize for “Quit those trusts! The case against the ‘Quistclose trust’ in New Zealand”.
Victoria University of Wellington
Macmillan Lawyers and Advisors
Macmillan Lawyers and Advisors
Recent winners
“Shifting the Equitable Paradigm: The Penalties Doctrine as a Limiting Principle in Lending”
King & Wood Mallesons
Congratulations to Genco Ceylan from King & Wood Mallesons for winning the BFSLA Research Essay Prize for 2025. Genco’s essay was “Shifting the Equitable Paradigm: The Penalties Doctrine as a Limiting Principle in Lending”.
“When the Coins Begin to Mix: The Reserve Bank of Australia’s Central Bank Digital Currency Mandate”
Law Graduate, King & Wood Mallesons (Sydney)
Layton is a Law Graduate at King & Wood Mallesons in Sydney. His submission,When the Coins Begin to Mix: The Reserve Bank of Australia’s Central Bank Digital Currency Mandate, was the subject of his honours thesis at the University of New South Wales.
MSc (Law and Finance), University of Oxford
Lachlan McIntyre, MSc (Law and Finance) (Distinction), University of Oxford; LLB (Hons I), BCom, University of Sydney. Lachlan recently graduated with Distinction from the Masters in Law and Finance programme at the University of Oxford.
| Year | Recipient | Topic |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Kevin Liu | Wisdom of the Crowds: Prediction Markets and the Regulation of Betting and Derivatives in Australia |
| 2025 | Genco Ceylan | Shifting the Equitable Paradigm: The Penalties Doctrine as a Limiting Principle in Lending |
| 2024 | Layton Hubble | When the coins begin to mix: the Reserve Bank of Australia’s central bank digital currency mandate. |
| 2023 | Lachlan McIntyre | Why a Director can and should be held liable for inducing their company's breach of trust |
| 2022 | Anna Kretowicz | The Quincecare Quagmire: Clarifying the Duty in Australian Law |
The Banking and Financial Services Law Association (or BFSLA) is the leading professional organisation for banking and financial services law in Australia and New Zealand. The BFSLA’s objects include the pursuit and dissemination of knowledge of banking and financial services law and practice in Australia and New Zealand, including by encouraging research.
To that end, each year the BFSLA invites eligible persons to submit research essays on important matters in banking and financial services (including insolvency) law and/or practice that are currently topical in Australia or New Zealand, in competition for a prize pool.
Eligibility
Authors must be citizens or permanent residents of Australia or New Zealand at the time of submission (but need not be living in Australia or New Zealand at that time). A person may not submit more than one entry (whether alone or with other authors); an entry may not have more than two authors. A person is not eligible if they have won any part of the BFSLA’s Research Essay Prize (alone or jointly) in any of the previous five years. Members of the Board of the BFSLA, and persons engaged by the Board to assist in the assessment of entries, are not eligible to enter.
Entries must be in English and must comply with the Australian Guide to Legal Citation (4th ed. 2018). They must not be more than 10,000 words. Entries must be the author’s original work and be unpublished at the time of submission. Copyright in all entries remains with the author(s); the BFSLA may propose that winning entries, and other entries worthy of publication, be submitted for publication in the Journal of Banking and Finance Law and Practice.
