ASIC expands 2023 enforcement priorities

National corporate regulator the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has expanded its enforcement focus areas for 2023.

Throughout the year, ASIC will focus on enforcement activity targeting sustainable finance practices and disclosing climate risks, financial scams, cyber and operational resilience, and investor harms involving crypto assets.

“We take our role to protect consumers and investors seriously and won't hesitate to take action to protect consumers where we identify poor conduct,” ASIC deputy chair Sarah Court said. “We will also remain focused on helping the industry meet its legal obligations, including by providing simple, effective, and easy-to-access guidance.”

ASIC's latest enforcement and regulatory report

The expansion of enforcement focus areas for 2023 follows the release of ASIC's latest enforcement and regulatory report, highlighting the regulator's actions during the final three months of 2022. Specifically:

• ASIC laid 173 criminal charges;
• The courts imposed $76.3 million in civil penalties; and
• ASIC commenced 62 investigations, with another 103 ongoing.

“In the final three months of last year, we commenced a number of significant enforcement and regulatory actions to address misconduct, market integrity threats, and consumer harms in sectors including financial services, retail, and crypto assets,” Court said. “This includes corporate governance and directors' duties, product design and distribution, and misleading statements involving sustainable finance practices.”

ASIC's 2023 priorities

In its previous statement, ASIC said its 2023 priorities were as follows:

• Misconduct damaging to market integrity, including insider trading, continuous disclosure failures, and market manipulation;
• Misconduct impacting First Nations people;
• Misconduct involving a high risk of significant consumer harm, particularly conduct targeting financially vulnerable consumers;
• Systemic compliance failures by large financial institutions resulting in widespread consumer harm; and
• New or emerging conduct risks within the financial system.

As part of its commitment to supporting First Nations people, ASIC recently published the Indigenous Financial Services Framework.

ASIC developed the framework after consulting First Nations people, financial services industry representatives, and fellow government regulators and organisations.