New reforms announced by the Treasury today that will see the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) responsible for the supervision of Australia’s financial markets should provide consistency, according to the Investment and Financial Services Association (IFSA).
The Government has decided to provide for ASIC to perform supervision of real-time trading on all of Australia’s domestic licensed markets. This change will mean that ASIC will now be responsible for both supervision and enforcement of the laws against misconduct on Australia’s financial markets, a Treasury statement said. This function is currently looked after by ASX Markets Supervision.
Meanwhile, individual markets such as the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) will retain supervision of listed entities.
Having one whole-of-market supervisor will consolidate the current individual supervisory responsibilities into one entity, streamlining supervision and enforcement, and providing complete supervision of trading on the market, the Minister for Financial Services, Superannuation and Corporate Law, Chris Bowen, said.
IFSA chief executive Richard Gilbert said “it is hoped that centralising supervision of trading by market participants will also facilitate greater competition in Australia’s financial markets and strengthen Australia’s position as a leading financial services centre in the region”.
ASIC chairman Tony D’Aloisio said ASIC will be working closely with the ASX to ensure a smooth transition of market surveillance and participant supervision responsibilities to ASIC.
The handover will see ASIC take the reigns in the third quarter of 2010.
