Asic officials will be “embedded” inside Australia’s five biggest financial institutions – Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, NAB, ANZ and AMP Capital – under a $70m plan to improve monitoring of their governance and compliance.
The corporate regulator will also establish a taskforce to identify failings inside large listed companies, and conduct on-site surveillance and investigations of those companies.
The two-year package for the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, worth $70.1m, was announced by the financial services minister, Kelly O’Dwyer, and the treasurer, Scott Morrison, on Tuesday.
It will allow Asic to implement the plans of its new chairman, James Shipton, to change the organisation’s “strategic direction” to focus on proactive enforcement.
Shipton took the reins of Asic in February, replacing former chairman Greg Medcraft.
The banking royal commission has heard damning revelations about the big four banks and AMP Capital.
The government said the funding would build on the extra $121.3m promised to Asic in 2016, via a four-year levy on the banks, which was needed to restore the cuts to Asic introduced by Tony Abbott’s government in the 2014 budget.
The package includes:
- $26.2m to help Asic pursue actions for serious misconduct against well-funded litigants.
- $8m to implement a new “supervisory approach” to the big four banks and AMP, which includes embedding staff inside those institutions.
- $6.8m to establish a taskforce to identify and pursue failings in large listed companies, including deploying staff to conduct on-site surveillance and investigations.
- $6.6m for Asic to address whistleblower disclosures about misconduct more effectively.
O’Dwyer said the funding would allow Shipton to take Asic in a new direction.
“It will ensure that Asic is on the front foot when it comes to considering any deficiencies in the governance and compliance structures of these large financial institutions, so as to prevent harm to consumers before it occurs,” she said.
