ASIC has today released Consultation Paper 342 Proposed amendments to the ASIC market integrity rules and other ASIC-made rules (CP 342).
The proposed amendments are designed to reduce the regulatory burden on participants, streamline rules across rule books and remove ambiguity in existing drafting. Some changes have been made necessary by recent changes to the Corporations Act.
ASIC’s proposals include:
- amendments to the Securities Market Integrity Rules covering accredited derivatives advisers, trades with price improvement, trade confirmations for non-retail clients and regulatory data reporting
- amendments to the Futures Market Integrity Rules covering prohibited employment, suspicious activity reporting and client authorisations
- amendments to ASIC-made rules generally, covering merits review, waivers and penalty amounts for breaches of the rules.
The consultation will assist ASIC to form its final position on the various rules sought to be amended. Participants and interested parties are therefore encouraged to make submissions.
Next steps
The consultation period will end on 6 August 2021. After receiving submissions on CP 342, ASIC will consider the feedback, publish a feedback report and submit the amended rules for Ministerial consent.
Background
On 1 August 2010, ASIC assumed responsibility for supervising domestic licensed markets and were given the power to make market integrity rules. Over time, the number of domestic licensed financial markets has grown. Prior to 2017, each of those markets had a market integrity rule book that applied to the market operator and its participants. A further, separate rule book addressed competition between markets.
In 2017, ASIC consulted on and consolidated the market integrity rules (see CP 277). As part of that process we announced that we would review the ASIC market integrity rules to make any further adjustments required as a result of: our experience in administering the ASIC market integrity rules; developments in the market; and feedback form market operators and participants.
In March 2020 this consultation was delayed to allow market participants to concentrate on business issues arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.