ASIC has repealed a number of obligations under the ASIC market integrity rules to reduce the compliance burden on market participants.

The repeals, which follow consultation launched in August 2014 (refer: 14-208MR), are reflected in four regulatory guides which have been updated.

ASIC Commissioner Cathie Armour said, ‘These obligations, which were based on rules in place before ASIC assumed responsibility for market supervision in 2010, imposed an unnecessary cost on business.

‘ASIC is committed to reducing the compliance burden for participants by administering the law efficiently with a minimum of procedural requirements.’

The changes remove rules that:

• require certain market participants to notify ASIC of the details of their professional indemnity insurance
• require certain market participants to obtain ASIC’s consent before sharing business connections, and
• restrict certain transactions such as special crossings during takeovers, schemes of arrangement and buy-backs.

Download:

• Regulatory Guide 214 Guidance on ASIC market integrity rules for ASX and ASX 24 markets (RG 214)
• Regulatory Guide 215 Guidance on ASIC market integrity rules for IMB, NSXA and SIM VSE markets (RG 215)
• Regulatory Guide 223 Guidance on ASIC market integrity rules for competition in exchange markets (RG 223)
• Regulatory Guide 224 Guidance on ASIC market integrity rules for Chi-X and APX markets (RG 224)
• Report 432 Response to submissions on CP 222 Reducing red tape: Proposed amendments to the market integrity rules (REP 432)

Background

The repealed rules applied across the markets operated by ASX, Chi-X, APX, NSXA and SIM VSE.