MIU - Issue 170 - August 2025

Issue 170 of the Market Integrity Update covers regulatory developments and issues affecting markets in August 2025.

Enhancing competition and innovation in Australia’s evolving capital markets

This month, ASIC announced and provided updates on four initiatives to foster competition, increase participation and build its understanding of Australia’s evolving capital markets.

We are in the final stages of considering a listing market application from Cboe Australia, a subsidiary of Cboe Global Markets (Cboe) to conduct sharemarket listings of companies in Australia. This move is expected to enhance competition and attract foreign investment, providing more choice for investors and greater international alignment.

Simultaneously, ASIC is adding Cboe’s US and Canadian exchanges, along with the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE) to the approved foreign markets list. This expansion will enable Australian investors to participate in certain transactions in these markets, further integrating Australia into the global financial system.

ASIC is also exploring measures to streamline dual listings of foreign companies in Australia and is actively considering other innovative applications to attract international businesses to Australia’s public markets. These measures promote Australia as an attractive destination for international capital.

Additionally, we approved an expansion of FCX’s Australian Markets Licence to facilitate private market bookbuilds, having earlier granted a licence for it to operate a tokenised market for private companies and funds. These developments underscore ASIC’s support for innovation and are set to boost investment in Australia’s private markets.

Read the media release.

ASIC puts market participants on notice about ASX trading service misuse

ASIC is warning market participants against the misuse of ASX’s Unintentional Crossing Prevention (UCP) service, having recently observed its improper use.

The UCP is an optional ASX trading feature which market participants can use to prevent wash trading on ASX Trade and ASX24 platforms.

As the name suggests, it is solely intended to address unintentional crossings.

The UCP should not be relied upon for deliberate trading strategies of placing overlapping orders. ASIC considers this use of the UCP is improper and may give rise to breaches of market integrity rules and market manipulation provisions.

The ASX is currently updating its guidance and information regarding the UCP’s functionality across trading phases.

Market participants should be aware that during pre-auction phases, overlapping bids and offers remain visible to the market and take part in the auction even if the UCP is applied. In the auction, they may execute against each other, or other orders, and accordingly impact the price.

Consequently, despite application of the UCP, a participant’s overlapping orders and resulting trades during these periods may create a false or misleading appearance with respect to the market for a financial product in breach of the market integrity rules or contravene the prohibition against market manipulation.

Market participants should not solely rely on the UCP as a mechanism to prevent wash trades and must have in place the necessary controls to ensure that trading messages do not interfere with the efficiency and integrity of the market, such as:

pre-trade filters for automated order processing that prevent orders which may self-execute from entering the market,
post-trade alerts that detect wash trades, and
qualified and experienced personnel to conduct pre-trade and post-trade reviews to identify unusual activity.

ASIC is monitoring markets for misuse of the UCP or other trading services and will take action, where appropriate to protect market integrity.

Share your feedback on proposed changes to modernise market integrity rules for trading systems

ASIC is consulting on proposed changes to modernise market integrity rules (MIRs) governing market participants’ trading systems and automated trading to keep pace with continued developments in technology, including artificial intelligence (AI).

The amendments also aim to:

streamline and reduce complexity by applying consistent rules to any trading systems used by participants, irrespective of how orders are generated or submitted, and
harmonise trading system rules and safeguards across the securities and futures markets and align our rules framework with the International Organisation of Securities Commission principles and international best practice on algorithmic trading.

ASIC welcomes feedback from industry on the proposed changes by 22 October 2025. Submissions should be sent to markets.consultation@asic.gov.au.

Further, ASIC also welcomes feedback from industry on ways to simplify and improve the MIRs, including a call for participants to identify which rules they would like ASIC to prioritise for review.

View Consultation Paper 386 Proposed amendments to the ASIC market integrity rules: Trading systems and automated trading (CP 386).

Read the news item.

Recent enforcement actions

In August, we announced the following enforcement outcomes:

Charges laid in Platinum Asset Management insider trading case

Former investment manager Rodney Forrest has been charged with trading and procuring others to trade Platinum Asset Management shares while in possession of inside information relating to a takeover offer and separately providing unlicensed financial advice.

On 12 August, Mr Forrest pleaded guilty to two counts of insider trading between August and September 2024.

This case marks the first outcome for ASIC’s new criminal investigation taskforce formed late last year to boost resources and expertise for investigating insider trading cases.

Read the media release.

Darryl Mapleson sentenced in Beacon Minerals insider trading case

On 6 August, geological services provider Darryl Mapleson was sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment for insider trading. He was released forthwith upon entering a recognisance in the amount of $5,000 to be of good behaviour for a period of two years. He was also fined $60,000 for his criminal offence.

Mr Mapleson pleaded guilty to procuring Rosdarem Pty Ltd and Rosdarem Investments Pty Ltd, companies of which he was a director, to acquire 6,792,850 Beacon Minerals shares between 21 and 24 January 2017 while he was in possession of inside information.

Read the media release.

ASIC secures million-dollar penalties from iSignthis and former director and CEO Nickolas Karantzis

The Federal Court has ordered iSignthis Ltd (iSignthis), now known as Southern Cross Payments Ltd, to pay a $10 million penalty for breaching disclosure laws.

Nickolas Karantzis, its former managing director and chief executive officer, was also disqualified from managing corporations for six years and penalised $1 million for breaching his director’s duties and failing to ensure information given to the ASX was not false or misleading.

In his reasons, Justice McEvoy found, ‘The community is entitled to expect that investors will not be misled, the market operator will be respected, and that questions asked by the market operator will be answered accurately and devoid of spin and obfuscation.’

Read the media release.

Four people charged with money laundering in fake investment scam

Four Victorian men have been charged with money laundering offences for their involvement in investment scams targeting individual investors.

ASIC alleges that between January and July 2021, the four were involved in facilitating a sophisticated financial investment scam targeting Australian investors offering fraudulent bonds and other financial products.

ASIC alleges that the four dealt with victim funds which were the proceeds of crime and were reckless as to whether those funds were proceeds of crime.

It is not alleged that the four were directly involved in operating the investment scam.

Read the media release.