The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) will get to write its own code of conduct once it completes its formal departure from the Australian Public Service (APS).
This compares to financial planning bodies which have to have their codes of conduct signed off and then monitored by ASIC.
The regulator has confirmed in answer to a question on notice from the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services that it will no longer be subject to the APS integrity framework once Government amendments to ASIC Act come into effect.
Those amendments will remove ASIC from the jurisdiction of the Public Service Act and open the way for the chairman of ASIC, James Shipton, to determine an ASIC Code of Conduct and ASIC Values.
The regulator’s answer to the question on notice said: “The ASIC Code of Conduct will, effectively replace the APS Code of Conduct for ASIC staff”.
“This is the same statutory framework for determining an agency code of conduct as applicable to APRA (which is also not required to engage staff under the Public Service Act 1999), and will allow ASIC to tailor a focussed Code of Conduct for its activities and staff,” it said.
