Related News:
Australian Regulator Changeover May Accelerate Trading, Fraud Prosecutions
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission said its takeover of financial-markets supervision should result in faster prosecutions in cases of manipulation and insider trading.
ASIC takes up the new role from next week after Australia’s Senate voted in March to hand oversight of real-time trading on domestic licensed markets to ASIC from ASX Ltd., the national stock exchange operator.
“Perhaps what people will see a bit more than before is that things are going quicker,” Belinda Gibson, ASIC’s deputy chairman, said in an interview at the agency’s Sydney premises. “We’re not talking quantum leaps in terms of time to prosecution. But at the moment, the referral process takes about three months for something like insider trading, and it chugs on from there.”
Until now, ASX’s role has been to investigate suspected breaches of market integrity rules and refer the most serious to ASIC, while its own conduct has been overseen by the regulator. ASIC will now be responsible for both supervision and enforcement of the laws against misconduct on Australia’s financial markets.
“One would think that if our own surveillance people see a potential breach of those criminal cases, it won’t be a case of review, review, tip it over the fence, and then we have another bite at the cherry,” said Gibson. “It should go pretty quickly, and more smoothly.”
Lost Cases
ASIC lost at least three high-profile court cases last year, including one against Jodee Rich over the collapse of telecommunications carrier One.Tel Ltd., of which he was managing director. It also lost a case against Andrew Forrest, the billionaire founder of Fortescue Metals Group Ltd., whom it accused of misleading investors over iron-ore project accords with China.
“A more effective and efficient regulator will engender confidence amongst market participants and can only help add to the attractiveness of Australia as a global investing destination,” said Tim Schroeders, a fund manager at Pengana Capital Ltd. in Melbourne.
The government has said the transfer of additional supervisory powers to the regulator will pave the way for the entry of new competitors to ASX.
Chi-X Global Inc., an electronic-trading-platform, this year won preliminary approval to become Australia’s first rival to the dominant exchange operator. Chi-X Australia Pty. is hoping to start operating in early 2011, the local unit’s chief operating officer, Peter Fowler, told Bloomberg News this month.
To contact the reporters for this story: Lisa Pham in Sydney at lpham14@bloomberg.net; Shani Raja in Sydney at sraja4@bloomberg.net.
Rate These Stories
Rate this Page