ASIC today published its sixth report on the supervision of Australian financial markets and market participants.
Report 366 ASIC supervision of markets and participants: January to June 2013 (REP 366) highlights the significant volume of market and participant-related outcomes achieved by ASIC in the first half of this year. Key outcomes include:
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20,938 trading alerts produced
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94 market inquiries conducted
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35 matters referred for further investigation
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45 risk-based assessment visits conducted
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88 surveillances completed
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19 instances of pre-emptive supervision action
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5 enforcement outcomes for insider trading offences
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2 infringement notices issued by the Markets Disciplinary Panel.
ASIC Commissioner Cathie Armour said ASIC, and in particular its market and participant supervision team, dedicates significant energy to the supervision and surveillance of Australia’s financial markets.
‘By doing so, we promote investor confidence in the integrity of our capital markets,’ Ms Armour said.
Greg Yanco, senior executive leader of the market and participant supervision team, noted that through ongoing engagement with stakeholders, surveillance of markets and market participants, education and guidance, and enforcement activities, ASIC has been able to achieve rapid changes in the behaviour of market participants.
‘We encourage market participants and securities dealers to continue to work with us at an early stage to address any trading issues or concerns,’ Mr Yanco said.
In the next six months ASIC will focus on technology governance processes in participant firms to ensure appropriate diligence at all levels.
‘In addition, when the new ASIC surveillance system is fully operational, we will be better able to identify participants' contribution to high order-to-trade ratios, small and fleeting orders and general market noise,’ Mr Yanco said.
‘Marketing of hybrid securities will also be on the ASIC radar. This week ASIC published a report on hybrid securities (refer: 13-220MR) which discusses the complex features and the risks that are often poorly understood by investors.’
Background
ASIC is responsible for the supervision of Australian market licence holders. We conduct real-time surveillance of equities trading on the ASX and (since 31 October 2011) Chi-X markets, and we supervise compliance in those markets with the Corporations Act 2001 and ASIC market integrity rules. We also seek to ensure that Australian financial services licence conditions are met by market participants and securities dealers.
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