The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) today released an update report outlining decisions on recent applications for relief by financial service providers from the licensing, conduct, disclosure and managed investments provisions of the Corporations Act 2001 (the Act).
The report covers the period from 15 August 2004 to 31 December 2004 and provides an overview of the circumstances in which ASIC has exercised, or refused to exercise, its discretionary powers to grant relief from the financial services provisions under Chapter 7 of the Act, and the managed investments provisions under Chapter 5C of the Act.
‘When ASIC released its first formal report outlining its relief decisions on 21 December 2004, we indicated that we would be providing regular update reports to demonstrate how we apply our policy in practice’, ASIC’s Director, Regulation, Mr John Price said.
‘ASIC will continue to publish these reports to make our decisions transparent and to provide some insight into the factors we may take into account in deciding whether or not to exercise our discretion to grant relief’, Mr Price said.
The report also outlines some instances where ASIC decided to take a no-action position regarding non-compliance with provisions of the Act. It includes an appendix detailing the relief instruments ASIC has executed for the matters referred to in the report. For ease of reference, the appendix contains cross-references linking the instruments to the relevant paragraph(s) of the report.
The report is available from the ASIC website at www.asic.gov.au or by calling ASIC’s Infoline on 1300 300 630.
Download a copy of the report (PDF file 206 KB)
Background
ASIC’s general policy is only to consider granting relief from the requirements of Chapters 5C and 7 of the Act to address atypical or unforeseen circumstances and unintended consequences of those provisions.
The criteria that ASIC will apply in considering applications for relief are most recently outlined in:
- Information Release [IR 03-29] ASIC issues additional guidance for FSR relief applicants;
- Policy Statement 136 Managed investments: Discretionary powers and closely related schemes [PS 136];
- Policy Statement 167: Licensing: Discretionary powers and transition [PS 167];
- Policy Statement 169: Disclosure: Discretionary powers and transition [PS 169]; and
- Policy Statement 176: Licensing: Discretionary powers — wholesale foreign financial services providers [PS 176].
ASIC is required to publish a copy of each exemption and/or modification instrument it issues in the ASIC Gazette, available from the ASIC website at www.asic.gov.au. Copies of ASIC’s policy statements, information releases and class orders are available from the same web address or by calling ASIC’s Infoline on 1300 300 630.
Applications for relief must be in writing and should address the requirements set out in Policy Statement 51[PS 51] Applications for relief. Applications can be submitted electronically to fsr.applications.manager@asic.gov.au. More information on applying for relief is available at www.asic.gov.au/fsrrelief.
ASIC has published previous information releases on its relief decisions including:
- Information Release [IR 04-72] ASIC issues report on recent relief applications from financial service providers (21 December 2004); and
- Information Release [IR 03-31] ASIC provides overview of applications for relief under FSRA (10 October 2003).
End of release