In our submission to the Senate Standing Committee on Economics we call for policy change to minimize reporting to actionable intelligence and place time limits on ASIC’s enforcement actions. 

We also seek change to the ASIC funding model so enforcement actions undertaken for the public good are funded by the public and income from penalties awarded following enforcement action are offset against ASIC’s costs.

We recommend that:

• policy settings should allow for ASIC’s regulated population to only report suspected egregious misconduct where there is, or is likely to be, sufficient evidence for ASIC to take action. 
• policy settings require ASIC to publish outcomes of all investigations across the same channels, irrespective of the outcome. 
• following a director being banned, the remaining and incoming directors be required to make a solvency declaration that states the company is financially stable and able to continue operating responsibly. 
• policy settings are amended so that investigations undertaken for the broader public benefit are funded by all taxpayers, not recovered solely from ASIC’s regulated population.  
• the income ASIC receives from penalties awarded as a result of enforcement action be offset against the costs of those enforcement actions and, where income exceeds costs, the excess returned to consolidated revenue. 
• policy settings to establish maximum time frames for each type of investigation and, where ASIC expects timeframes may be exceeded, ASIC to be required to show cause for an extension to that timeframe to an independent, objective body.  

Thank you to the members of our Insolvency Management Committee, our member specialists across audit and financial advice and our registered liquidators for their input to this submission.