The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has, since July 2013, been assessing how well the ASX has been applying its own listing rules in order to run "a market that, to the extent reasonably practicable, is fair, orderly and transparent".  ASIC's report, published yesterday, considered the extent to which ASX has met its obligations under the Corporations Act 2001; whether ASX could monitor and enforce compliance with its listing rules; and whether the exchange had sufficient resources to properly operate its listing market. ASIC found that the ASX has met its statutory obligations based on a range of factors but the review this time was limited to equities, despite the larger number of products being offered now.Nevertheless, ASIC did identify possible areas where the ASX will be under pressure in future, such as the technology, healthcare and diversified financial services industries.These sectors are newly expanding and, arguably, the ASX lacks staff with technical expertise in monitoring and enforcing disclosure and other listing rule requirements, compared to the more "traditional" sectors such as mining. Another consequence of the shifting business cycle has been the pressure on a range of listed entities at the smaller end of the market. This has contributed to, among other things, a significant increase in backdoor listings. There was a 164 per cent increase in backdoor listings on ASX between the 2013-14 and 2014-15 financial years. This trend is almost certain to continue. A further angle picked up by ASIC was that the final form of the Australian model for crowd-sourced equity funding is yet to be finalised. "If the proposals are adopted, it may also present a genuine alternative to the traditional model of accessing capital through ASX," the ASIC analysts wrote. The report pointed out that there are an unusually large number of companies that meet the minimum listing criteria, but may be better suited to an 'alternative' or 'growth' listing board or similar structure - suggesting that if one were to be created in Australia, it would meet a fast-emerging need.