The federal government has announced a further $70.1 million in funding for the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) to boost its enforcement capability.
Chief among the measures is ASIC embedding staff within Australia’s largest financial institutions to monitor governance and compliance actions.
The additional funding comes after a decision by new ASIC chair James Shipton to refocus the corporate regulator’s strategic direction on proactive enforcement and increase on-site supervisory approaches.
The package of measures includes $26.2 million of funding to increase the intensity of ASIC’s enforcement activities and boost its ability to pursue actions for serious misconduct against well-funded litigants through the Enforcement Special Account; $9.4 million to boost supervision of the superannuation sector by bolstering audit and enforcement action to improve transparency and outcomes for members; and an extra $8 million to execute a new supervisory approach with Australia’s five largest financial institutions – the big four banks and AMP – by, for the first time, embedding staff within these institutions to monitor governance and compliance actions.
Additional elements of the package are an allocation of $6.8 million to set up a dedicated taskforce that will conduct a proactive, targeted and thematic review into corporate governance to identify and pursue failings in large listed companies, including sending staff to conduct on-site surveillance and investigations; $6.6 million to implement the government’s reforms to whistleblower protection laws so that ASIC can better receive, assess, prioritise and address whistleblower disclosures about misconduct; and $6 million to promote Australia as a world leader in the development and adoption of regulatory technology solutions for the financial services industry.
“The remaining funds will be directed towards improving consumer access to the financial advisers register, enhancing ASIC’s enforcement work on the unfair contract term protections for small businesses, and ensuring compliance by licensees and financial advisers with the Future of Financial Advice laws,” Revenue and Financial Services Minister Kelly O’Dwyer said.
This latest round of funding for ASIC comes after the government announced $121.3 million of funding in 2016 to increase its investigative and surveillance capabilities.
