ASIC

The regulator has issued 26 stop orders against 18 companies for failing to adequately target financial products to the appropriate market since the “design and distribution obligations” regime began, it said in an initial compliance review. And it warned that closer scrutiny is coming.

The advice review lead had said she wouldn’t comment on the recommendations while the government pondered its response. But with the consultation dragging on, she urged the government to get it done and let ASIC do the refinement.

The hits keep coming for the country’s primary stock exchange, which is now under investigation by the corporate regulator for its oversight of the doomed upgrade to its clearing system.

The converged advice and accounting group will go to shareholders with a proposal to change its name to ‘Count’, which it hopes will “better reflect the nature” of its operations.

The regulator’s financial reporting surveillance program has turned up numerous companies failing to make required risk disclosures in financial reports, as it reminds directors of their obligation to provide investors with key information about a company’s prospects.

“I don’t think anyone told me that things are going well,” said Michelle Levy of the advice review consultation process. Despite being given disparate views on how to fix things, the lawyer believes compromise was never an option.

The corporate regulator reports it has issued 21 stop orders against companies over marketing of financial products since new design and distribution obligations went into effect last October, with the rate of enforcement picking up in recent months.

After the regulator abandoned its $500K minimum balance guidance, the SMSF Association says it hopes licensees will reconsider some of the concerns they may have had about low-balance funds.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission is making good on promises to combat greenwashing, issuing its second set of fines against a company for misrepresenting the ESG bona fides of an investment product.

The Corporations Act is “technology neutral” according to ASIC, so video SOAs are acceptable as long as they include the eight or so standard compliance requirements.