ASIC has updated regulatory guidance to confirm restrictions, that were announced in June 2017, on the use of terminology that implies independence. ASIC has updated Regulatory Guide 175 Licensing: Financial product advisers – conduct and disclosure (RG 175), to include guidance that terms such as ‘independently owned’, ‘non-aligned’ and ‘non-institutionally owned’ are restricted under the […]
A person who carries on a financial services business in Australia must hold an Australian financial services (AFS) licence, subject to certain exemptions, including where the person provides a financial service as a representative of an AFS licensee. Similarly, a person must not engage in a credit activity unless the person holds an Australian credit […]
The $1.1 billion National Innovation and Science Agenda (NISA) was announced on 7 December 2015 and contained a range of tax measures intended to support innovative Australian businesses. These tax measures included the introduction of the Tax Incentive for Early Stage Investors, as well as amendments to the Venture Capital Limited Partnership and Early Stage Venture Capital […]
ASIC has released a suite of new and updated guidance for the funds management industry for consultation. The six new and updated regulatory guides have been developed in advance of the upcoming new Asia Region Funds Passport and corporate collective investment vehicle (CCIV) legislation, taking into account these new areas as well as bringing ASIC’s […]
The Government has today released exposure draft legislation and regulations intended to create an enhanced regulatory sandbox to support innovation in financial services. As announced in the 2017-18 Budget, the FinTech regulatory sandbox will allow a broad scope of activities to be tested without the need to meet all the existing licensing requirements of the […]
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) can pursue a range of regulatory and enforcement sanctions and remedies to respond to misconduct that occurs in the corporate, financial market or financial services sectors. Concerns have emerged in a number of forums that the penalties in the legislation administered by ASIC may not be effective in […]
ASIC has released the finalised ASIC Client Money Reporting Rules 2017 (client money rules) which, from 4 April 2018, will impose record-keeping, reconciliation and reporting obligations on Australian financial services (AFS) licensees that hold ‘derivative retail client money’ within the meaning of the Corporations Act, unless the client money relates to a derivative that is […]
The Government is introducing legislation to the Parliament today to extend crowd-sourced equity funding to proprietary companies. As part of this Bill, proprietary companies wanting to access equity crowdfunding will no longer have to convert to a public company entity. Instead founders will be able to crowdfund while retaining the greater flexibility of the proprietary […]
From 29 September 2017, the new crowd-sourced funding (CSF) regime will come into effect and ASIC will begin accepting licence applications from CSF intermediaries. Under the CSF regime, eligible public companies will be able to make offers of fully paid ordinary shares to a large number of investors via the online platform of a licensed […]
The ASIC Enforcement Review Taskforce has issued a position paper titled ‘ASIC’s power to ban senior officials in the financial sector’. In its final report, the Financial System (Murray) Inquiry concluded that ASIC’s banning powers against individuals needed to be enhanced to improve accountability of managers and the culture of firms in the financial services […]