ASIC to reduce credit surveillance

In his opening statement to the Senate Estimates Committee yesterday, ASIC chairman Greg Medcraft said that as a result of the regulator’s funding cuts “some change is inevitable”.

“In particular, our proactive surveillance will substantially reduce across the sectors we regulate, and in some cases stop,” Mr Medcraft said.

“In our deposit takers, credit and insurance team, there will be reduced proactive surveillance," he said.

“As a result, this team will focus on activity by entities that have the greatest market impact at the expense of smaller entities that have smaller customer bases.”

ASIC will rely more on intelligence from misconduct reports and complaints, limiting its risk-based approach to focus on those entities or activities that have the greatest market impact, Mr Medcraft said.

“Where we do find that someone has intentionally broken the law, we will continue to do the best we can to ensure the consequences are severe,” he said.