ASIC wants more MIS data and oversight powers | Australian Markets

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has flagged looking for legislative and regulatory change from the Government to help pug the gaps which allowed the Shield and First Guardian failures to happen.

In doing so, ASIC chair Joe Longo has particularly named managed investment schemes as an space for reform to repair long-running points.

As effectively, he used a speech to a Financial Services Council (FSC) occasion to call for a lifting of requirements for gatekeepers, naming analysis homes, financial advisers, super trustees and the accountable entities of managed investments scheme.

“We need to ask ourselves whether some of the entities involved in this suspected misconduct are adequately captured by existing laws,” Longo mentioned.

“Some key questions in ASIC’s focus include: Are financial and professional indemnity requirements adequate? Do we need to place limits on what superannuation can be invested in? Should we demand more of superannuation trustees and responsible entities? Do we need to place restrictions on retail investments in high-risk funds? Is the current retail client definition still ‘fit for purpose’? Or do we have to slow down the process of rolling over superannuation and creating an SMSF?”

On the query of managed investment schemes, Longo identified that ASIC and others had been calling for a vary of reforms for nearly three a long time and made a case for ASIC being given energy to gather data on managed funds.

He mentioned that Australia’s managed investment scheme regime is “very permissive”

“The bar is so low to register one, it basically serves no barrier to entry at all. It doesn’t matter if the underlying asset is alpacas or meme coins – if the fund has a valid trust deed and disclosure document, ASIC has to register it,” Longo mentioned.

“And then, so much of our work becomes about picking up the pieces afterwards when things go wrong, rather than preventing the harm – and who pays for that? All the people in this room.”

The ASIC chairman mentioned that in circumstances the place each Shield and First Guardian have been made accessible by way of a platform it was incumbent on superannuation trustees to undertake enough due diligence of new investment choices earlier than making them accessible to buyers.”