938 breach matters on ASIC ledger

ASIC's annual report discloses the corporate regulator is facing an increasingly packed agenda, with the Royal Commission proving to be a non-stop source of projects and investigations for ASIC staffers, while its own fees for services plan has not been approved.

In 2017/18, ASIC identified and addressed 938 cases of failures or potential failures to comply with regulatory obligations.

Under the industry funding model for ASIC, effective from 1 July 2017, "those who create the need for regulation bear the costs of that regulation, and providing the economic incentives to drive the Government's desired regulatory outcomes for the financial system," as the report states.

Entities are expected to pay a share of their subsector costs based on a range of business activity metrics.

"Fees for service" is the second phase of industry funding. Fees for service came into force on 4 July 2018, and "will be reviewed periodically to ensure they remain accurate and reflective of effort", ASIC said.

In March 2018, ASIC published 2017/18 indicative levies for 36 out of 48 industry subsectors.

But ASIC does not yet have access to the business activity metrics required to calculate and publish indicative levies for the remaining 12 subsectors (around 20 per cent of the population of 47,000 regulated entities).

The ASIC report discloses that those entities will not receive indicative levies until ASIC tables in Parliament a legislative instrument outlining actual costs, population and business activity metrics for all subsectors in 2017/18.

This is scheduled to take place in November 2018.