In the regulator’s sixth report on the supervision of Australian financial markets and market participants, it says it produced close to 21,000 trading alerts, conducted 94 market enquiries and referred 35 matters for further investigation.
ASIC also conducted 45 risk-based assessment visits and completed 88 surveillances, with 19 instances of pre-emptive supervision action.
There were also five enforcement outcomes for insider trading offences and two infringement notices issued by ASIC’s Markets Disciplinary Panel.
ASIC commissioner Cathie Armour said ASIC, and in particular its market and participant supervision team, dedicates significant energy to the supervision and surveillance of Australia’s financial markets.
“By doing so, we promote investor confidence in the integrity of our capital markets,” Ms Armour stated.
Greg Yanco, senior executive leader of the market and participant supervision team, said ASIC has been able to achieve rapid changes in the behaviour of market participants and encouraged market participants to work with ASIC at an early stage to address any issues.
ASIC said over the next six months it will focus on technology governance processes in participant firms.
“In addition, when the new ASIC surveillance system is fully operational, we will be better able to identify participants' contribution to high order-to-trade ratios, small and fleeting orders and general market noise,” Mr Yanco said.
