Objectives and Functions of ASIC

The objective of ASIC is to ensure the confident and informed participation of consumers in the financial system. To attain this objective, it is striving to

ensure that consumers receive adequate and appropriate information to make informed decisions about financial products and services;

maintain a vigilant oversight of the marketplace to proactively identify, stop and deter misleading and fraudulent conduct;

ensure that consumers have access to appropriate redress systems when things do go wrong;

adopt a flexible approach to regulation to ensure that unnecessary impediments to business are removed where consumer protection goals are not compromised; and

apply the knowledge and experience we acquire as the regulator to consumer education initiatives and policy debates so as to improve the system of consumer protection across the regulatory spectrum - from self-regulation initiatives to legislation.

To achieve these goals in the rapidly changing environment within which the financial services sector operates, ASIC must continue to develop an integrated risk-based approach to compliance. This approach must focus on identifying and responding to emerging regulatory problems, patterns of conduct and financial services sector issues, and must be underpinned by effective enforcement. This involves the ASIC increasingly in:

adopting a risk-based approach to compliance involving systemic identification of important regulatory risks (i.e., regulatory problems, patterns of non-compliance or emerging financial sector regulatory issues) and then putting in place regulatory responses designed to address the specific regulatory concern;

engaging in collaborative partnerships with industry, consumers and their representatives, ASIC staff, the media and other regulators to produce a shared sense of purpose through collaborative agenda setting; more effective interventions through engagement of multiple parties and optimal leveraging of scarce public resources;

focusing on results, persevering in the search for meaningful impact measures to complement other efficiency, output and outcome measures; and

ASIC is committed to better regulation. Better regulation initiatives are intended to make our regulation more transparent, smoother and easier.