ASIC announced that is consulting on proposals to refine and update ASIC’s regulatory guidance on the licensing regime for financial markets.
Consultation Paper 293 Revising the market licence regime for domestic and overseas operators (CP 293) proposes introducing a two-tiered market licence regime, based on a risk-based assessment. The second tier of licence will be able to facilitate a range of market venues, including specialised and emerging market venues. The consultation paper also:
- proposes updating and clarifying the guidance about how licensees may comply with specific licence obligations
- proposes consolidating Regulatory Guide 177 (overseas market licensees) into the updated Regulatory Guide 172
- sets out the relevance of the proposals for secondary trading in shares of eligible crowd sourced funding companies, and
- addresses implementation and transition matters.
The proposals follow the passage of the Corporations Amendment (Crowd-sourced Funding) Act 2017 (Crowd Sourced Funding Act), which amended Chapter 7 of the Corporations Act 2001 relating to the market licence regime.
In recent years, we have seen changes in the role of financial markets, including changes affecting traditional exchanges and a range of non-exchange trading venues. By implementing the reforms made by the Crowd Sourced Funding Act, the proposals will allow the market licence regime to reflect these developments and update our guidance. Importantly, these proposals will introduce a two-tiered market licence regime, which will be aligned with the approach taken in key overseas financial markets,’ Commissioner Armour said.
Submissions to CP 293 are due by 31 August 2017.