Our role

What we do
Our strategic priorities
Who we regulate
Our powers
Protecting consumers and investors
Statements of expectation and intent

What we do

ASIC is Australia’s corporate, markets and financial services regulator.

We contribute to Australia’s economic reputation and wellbeing by ensuring that Australia’s financial markets are fair and transparent, supported by confident and informed investors and consumers.

We are an independent Commonwealth Government body. We are set up under and administer the Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act (ASIC Act), and we carry out most of our work under the Corporations Act.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act 2001 requires us to:

maintain, facilitate and improve the performance of the financial system and entities in it
promote confident and informed participation by investors and consumers in the financial system
administer the law effectively and with minimal procedural requirements
enforce and give effect to the law
receive, process and store, efficiently and quickly, information that is given to us
make information about companies and other bodies available to the public as soon as practicable.

More about the laws we administer

Other regulators and organisations

International activities

Stakeholder survey reports

ASIC currently comes under the portfolio responsibilities of the Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer, the Hon David Bradbury MP.

Our strategic priorities

ASIC's priorities are to ensure:

Confident and informed investors and financial consumers

education - investor responsibility for investment decisions remains core to our system, understanding risk and reward and diversification is paramount
gatekeepers - we will hold gatekeepers to account
consumer behaviour - recognising how investors and consumers make decisions

Fair and efficient financial markets

achieved through our role in market supervision and competition, and corporate governance

Efficient registration and licensing

with a focus on small business.

Download ASIC's Strategic Framework (PDF 285KB)

Who we regulate

We regulate Australian companies, financial markets, financial services organisations and professionals who deal and advise in investments, superannuation, insurance, deposit taking and credit.

As the consumer credit regulator, we license and regulate people and businesses engaging in consumer credit activities (including banks, credit unions, finance companies, and mortgage and finance brokers). We ensure that licensees meet the standards - including their responsibilities to consumers - that are set out in the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009.

As the markets regulator, we assess how effectively authorised financial markets are complying with their legal obligations to operate fair, orderly and transparent markets. We also advise the Minister about authorising new markets. On 1 August 2010, we assumed responsibility for the supervision of trading on Australia’s domestic licensed equity, derivatives and futures markets.

As the financial services regulator, we license and monitor financial services businesses to ensure that they operate efficiently, honestly and fairly. These businesses typically deal in superannuation,managed funds, shares and company securities,derivatives, and insurance.

Our powers

The laws we administer give us the facilitative, regulatory and enforcement powers necessary for us to perform our role. These include the power to:

register companies and managed investment schemes
grant Australian financial services licences and Australian credit licences
register auditors and liquidators
grant relief from various provisions of the legislation which we administer
maintain publicly accessible registers of information about companies, financial services licensees and credit licensees
make rules aimed at ensuring the integrity of financial markets
stop the issue of financial products under defective disclosure documents
investigate suspected breaches of the law and in so doing require people to produce books or answer questions at an examination
issue infringement notices in relation to alleged breaches of some laws
ban people from engaging in credit activities or providing financial services
seek civil penalties from the courts
commence prosecutions - these are generally conducted by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions, although there are some categories of matters which we prosecute ourselves.

Protecting consumers and investors

We have powers to protect consumers against misleading or deceptive and unconscionable conduct affecting all financial products and services, including credit.

Statements of expectation and intent

Read the Treasurer's Statement of Expectations and ASIC's Statement of Intent

ASIC Website: Printed 02/09/2012

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