The High Court has handed down judgment in the appeals brought by ASIC against the former directors (Mr Bill Lewski, Dr Michael Wooldridge, Mr Mark Butler and Mr Kim Jaques) of Australian Property Custodian Holdings Pty Ltd (APCHL). The Court unanimously allowed ASIC’s appeals in part, finding that ASIC had succeeded in two of its […]
ASIC is concerned about recent control transactions where part or all of the consideration includes stub-equity in Australian proprietary companies. These offers of stub-equity have been made to a large and diverse group of target shareholders, including retail investors. Proprietary companies are required to be closely held and are prohibited from making broad public offers […]
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has extended the transition periods for certain fees and costs disclosures for superannuation funds and managed investment schemes. This is due to upcoming consultation on the proposals arising out of recommendations made in the review of the fees and costs disclosure regime in Report 581 Review of ASIC Regulatory […]
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) is inviting input on proposed updates to our organisational competence requirements for advice licensees through the release of a consultation paper today. ASIC has proposed updates to Regulatory Guide 105 Licensing: Organisational competence (RG 105) to support the professional standards reforms, which aim to lift the education, training […]
ASIC has welcomed the achievement of a major milestone for Australian consumers and small business – the start of Australia’s new financial services dispute resolution scheme, the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA). More than 35,000 firms operating across financial services, credit and superannuation have joined AFCA, and from 1 November 2018 their customers will have […]
ASIC is today announcing a review of compliance with requirements for Fee Disclosure Statements and Renewal Notices in the financial advice sector. ASIC has received a number of breach reports from licensees which indicate they may have failed to comply with the Fee Disclosure Statement (FDS) and Renewal Notice requirements that were implemented as part […]
ASIC has released updated regulatory guides to coincide with the extension of the crowd-sourced funding (CSF) framework to eligible proprietary companies. This starts on 19 October 2018. ASIC has amended its guidance to include proprietary companies and updated requirements for public companies after consulting with those parties that made submissions to Consultation Paper 288 Crowd-sourced […]
ASIC has released a new legislative instrument relating to the professional standards reforms for financial advisers, as announced on 1 August 2018 (refer: 18-225MR). The instrument makes changes to the reporting dates for a number of disclosure obligations in the transition to the new financial adviser professional standards reforms. It also makes minor technical amendments […]
ASIC has issued a new legislative instrument that provides various relief and modifications to the laws in relation to short selling (the Short Selling Instrument). ASIC has also updated its existing guidance in Regulatory Guide 196 Short selling to reflect the legislative instrument. In addition to providing new relief and modifications, the Short Selling Instrument […]
All managed discretionary account (MDA) providers must now have an Australian financial services (AFS) licence, with an MDA-specific ‘dealing by issue’ licence authorisation. From today, MDA providers who do not have the required AFS licence authorisations must cease providing MDAs until they have obtained those authorisations. An MDA is a facility where client portfolio assets […]