Senate Inquiry Calls For Australia's Corporate Watchdog's Split Due To Internal Turmoil

A Senate committee report mandated the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) to split its functions after it was found that the organization didn't stay committed to its legal duties, but was busy dealing with its internal turmoil.

Australia's corporate watchdog has been criticized for ignoring the prosecution of offenders or imposing accountability to safeguard its public image.

The report, formed after a 20-month inquiry, said, "While ASIC tries to deflect criticism that it is a weak corporate regulator by promoting its recent enforcement actions, the reality remains that corporate law is under-enforced in Australia."

The report suggested that ASIC's wide responsibilities be split into two organizations -- a corporations regulator and a financial services regulator -- for effective functioning of the system.

"It is clear ASIC has failed," said the Senate Economics Committee head Andrew Bragg, Reuters reported.

Similar to the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's practices, the report suggests creating a searchable public registry of civil or criminal penalties that follows allegations of wrongdoing. Restoring public trust in ASIC's regulatory supervision and improving accountability are the goals of this transparency project.

"Too often, ASIC fails to respond to early warnings of corporate misconduct and does not routinely use the full extent of its powers to achieve strong enforcement outcomes," the report said, as per ABC.

To improve corporate transparency and accountability in Australia, the report suggested strengthening whistleblower protections with financial incentives and implored ASIC to establish a public registry of misconduct results.

"This is the third such inquiry into ASIC in the last 30 years, and if you read the transcripts of the last two, the one from the early 90s, and then the one from last decade, it's effectively identical," Bragg said.

"I mean, nothing is really improved, despite all the inquiries and royal commission."

ASIC, the most comprehensive corporate regulator in the world, has over 200 workers and is required to manage 95,000 entities, including firms and financial services.

"I don't think that ASIC can actually focus, because its mandate is so big, and parliament has to take its medicine here," Senator Bragg said.