ASIC placed licence restrictions on OpenMarkets in December 2016 after it found issues with the firm’s automated order processing and post-trade monitoring arrangements.
The licence condition required OpenMarkets to appoint an independent review of its “trading and compliance arrangements”, to which OpenMarkets agreed, appointing external review and consultancy firm MIntegrity.
MIntegrity completed its initial review in March 2017, making a number of recommendations relating to trade monitoring and surveillance, compliance measures, policies and procedures, documentation and procedure handling of client money, record keeping and governance, and human and technological resources.
On 3 August 2017, ASIC announced OpenMarkets had engaged the consultancy firm once again to conduct a review of the “effectiveness of its implementation plan and actions”.
The latest release by ASIC on 2 February 2018 stated that the licence conditions imposed on OpenMarkets had been removed after MIntegrity found the online stockbroker had “adequately addressed the recommendations detailed in the independent expert’s initial report”.
MIntegrity’s final report gave Openmarkets a ‘green’ status, denoting that “frameworks, policies and procedures are adequate and comply with applicable regulatory requirements and guidelines, and are at the same or a higher standard than similar peer documentation”.
“MIntegrity notes that considerable progress has been made by OpenMarkets to develop its suite of policies to the expected level,” the final report said.
“During the initial stages of this implementation review, some gaps and observations were identified in the recently submitted policies.
“However, OpenMarkets addressed these in a timely and considered fashion and overall MIntegrity is of the opinion that the policy suite is sufficient and the recommendations have been adequately implemented.”
ASIC’s statement read: “ASIC acknowledges OpenMarkets' cooperative approach to improving its compliance standards and addressing ASIC's concerns.”
