ASIC has released its submission to the 2014 Senate inquiry into forestry managed investment schemes.

The submission sets out:

• ASIC’s role in relation to the regulation of forestry managed investment schemes, and
• actions ASIC has taken to address issues arising in this sector as a result of the collapse of a number of responsible entities of forestry schemes.

It also provides ASIC’s views on potential areas for reform with reference to proposals in a July 2012 Corporations and Markets Advisory Committee (CAMAC) report, including:

• the potential for a prospective ban of agribusiness managed investment schemes (MISs)
• the adoption of particular recommendations made by CAMAC
• governance and risk management arrangements that apply to managed investment schemes
• a more flexible regulatory toolkit to address weaknesses in the Australian financial services (AFS) licensing regime, and
• the potential for the introduction of a statutory compensation scheme.

ASIC Commissioner Greg Tanzer said, ‘We see some merit in considering potential reforms of this sector, however, any such reforms should be considered within the broader work that has been done in developing potential refinements to the regime as a whole.

‘As a result, we have identified some potential areas for reform that relate to the specific business model of common enterprise schemes, and forestry schemes in particular, as well as potential areas for reform across the broader managed investment scheme sector.’

Download ASIC’s submission to the 2014 Senate inquiry into forestry managed investment schemes