ASIC’s period of external scrutiny

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission is properly subject to parliamentary oversight, apart from the on-going scrutiny it receives from its various stakeholders.

At least four items of parliamentary oversight are coming up in the next month or so.

  • 13 September – the PJC on Corporations and Financial Services is conducting its regular “oversight of ASIC” hearing in Canberra.
  • 15 October – apart from the requirement for ASIC to give its annual report to the Minister by 15 October, for its tabling in parliament, section 136 ASIC Act requires the report to provide information on a range of items, including ASIC’s monitoring and promotion of market integrity and consumer protection in relation to financial services, its activities in relation to external administration of companies under Chapter 5 or Schedule 2 to the Corporations Act, information about the Business Names Register, and ASIC’s timeliness. ASIC must also report on its use of information gathering powers,
  • 16 October – the Senate Standing Committee on Economics is conducting a review of ASIC’s 2018 annual report, in which is contained the information given by ASIC for that year under s 136.
  • 31 October or as soon as practicable after, ASIC must publish on its website “dashboard” information in relation to its regulatory costs for the previous financial year, including by sector and sub-sector: see s 138 ASIC Act. This is intended to provide some accountability and transparency in relation to the levies then imposed on ‘industry’ to meet those costs.

This information is provided for those interested. Information on ASIC and many of these inquiries for previous years have been reported on this site: see generally ASIC.

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