ASIC has issued ASIC Corporations (Amendment) Instrument 2019/216 (Instrument) which has the effect of preserving the relief provided by Class Order [CO 02/273] Business introduction or matching services (original class order) for an additional three years.
The original Class Order gives conditional relief from the fundraising, financial product disclosure, hawking and advertising requirements in the Corporations Act 2001 that would apply to a person making or calling attention to offers of securities or interests in a registered managed investment scheme through a business introduction service.
The Instrument extends ASIC Corporations (Repeal and Transitional) Instrument 2017/186 (Instrument 2017/186), which preserved the effect of the original Class Order, until 1 April 2022. Without the Instrument, the relief in Instrument 2017/186 would have expired on 23 March 2019.
The additional three years will provide ASIC with sufficient time to review and consult on the policy settings in the original Class Order. Since the original Class Order was issued, the crowd-sourced funding (CSF) regime was introduced. The CSF regime came into effect in September 2017 for eligible public companies and in October 2018 for eligible proprietary companies. ASIC will assess the impact of the CSF regime on the original Class Order.
ASIC will consult publicly on its relief for business introduction services before 1 April 2022.
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- extended ASIC Corporations (Repeal and Transitional) Instrument 2017/186
- original Class Order [CO 02/273] (superseded)
Background
In March 2002, ASIC issued Class Order [CO 02/273] Business introduction or matching services (original Class Order). In March 2017, ASIC issued Instrument 2017/186 which repealed the original Class Order but preserved the effect of the original Class Order for two years until 23 March 2019. ASIC Corporations (Amendment) Instrument 2019/216 has the effect of preserving the relief provided by the original Class Order until 1 April 2022.
Under the Legislation Act 2003, all class orders are repealed automatically or 'sunset' after a period (mostly 10 years) unless ASIC takes action to preserve them. This ensures that legislative instruments, like class orders, are kept up-to-date and only remain in force while they are fit-for-purpose and relevant.
All government organisations are responsible for considering whether the legislative instruments they have made, which are due to sunset, will be relevant after their sunset date.