It has been almost 12 months since the requirement that all accountants who provide services covering Self-Managed Superannuation Funds be appropriately licensed. Accountants could either obtain their own Australian Financial Services (“AFS”) Licence, or be appointed as an Authorised Representative of a licensee with the appropriate authorisations.
Ariel & Associates Pty Ltd invites you to a free briefing to assist you with your obligations as financial services provider, especially as we approach financial year end.
Read more
In March 2015, ASIC established an Innovation Hub which was designed to assist financial technology (“fintech”) businesses navigate the financial services system. Similarly, ASIC has taken proactive steps to ensure it engages with industry in regard to developments in regulatory technology (“regtech”).
ASIC has defined regtech as “the use of new technologies to solve regulatory and compliance requirements more effectively and efficiently. These technologies could include use of artificial intelligence, natural language processing, data reporting, regulatory codification and big data analysis technologies.”
Read more
ASIC has recently released a report covering enforcement results for the period 1 July 2016 to 31 December 2016. The report highlights investigations undertaken during this period as well as a high level analysis of the results.
Read more
ASIC has issued Regulatory Guide (“RG”) 257 which seeks to assist fintech businesses test products and services before they obtain an Australian Financial Services (“AFS”) Licence or an Australian Credit Licence (“ACL”).
RG 257 is designed to permit fintechs to test their new products and services before they obtain an AFS Licence or ACL
Read more
As a result of the growing number of market operators in the Australian financial sector, market market supervision and real-time surveillance was transferred from the Australian Securities Exchange (“ASX”) to ASIC in August 2010. As a result, ASIC drafted specific rules for each Market Operator, which became known as the Market Integrity Rules.
There are Market Integrity Rules for all current Market Operators - including the ASX, ASX24, Chi-X, National Stock Exchange of Australia (“NSXA”), Sydney Stock Exchange and Financial and Energy Exchange. Additional Rules have been drafted to cover competition in market rules and capital requirements.
Read more