ASIC brokers

ASIC – Australian Securities and Investments Commission) is the Australian securities and investments Commission, which is the only public financial regulator in Australia that exercises control over all participants in financial markets, including companies and individuals. ASIC was introduced in 1998, but at that time there were several Supervisory authorities for each financial segment in Australia, which caused confusion among the responsibilities and powers of financial regulators. Therefore, it was decided to create a single state Supervisory authority, which became ASIC. First, he defended the interests of consumers of pension funds, investment and insurance companies, since 2002, banks were added, since 2009, the Australian stock market came under the control of ASIC, and since 2010, he was assigned to work with Forex dealers and brokerage companies. As of 2015, more than 500 companies were already under the supervision of the Australian Commission, and the regulator itself employs more than 2,000 employees. To date, no financial company can operate in Australia without an ASIC license, and it is not so easy to get one.

How do I get an ASIC license?

To obtain an ASIC license, the broker must::

• fill out the application form;
• provide the necessary documents specified on the regulator's website, including staff training certificates confirming their qualifications and sufficient professional experience;
• have an authorized capital of at least AUD $ 50,000 for ECN brokers and AUD $ 1 million for market makers;
• make a membership fee from AUD $ 1,500 to AUD $ 8,000.

The procedure for reviewing a license application takes about a month. During this time will be PRa thorough audit of the broker was conducted to check its solvency. If nothing suspicious is detected, the broker will receive a license to operate. The ASIC license is highly valued in the financial markets due to the complexity of obtaining it and the company's great responsibility in detecting fraudulent activities, but it is still inferior to regulators such as the FCA or CySEC.

Powers of the ASIC regulator

In addition to the complex procedure for obtaining a license the Australian Commission ASIC also has broad powers:

• regularly conducts sudden inspections and audits of the financial condition of brokers;
• identifies transactions using insider information and fraudulent transactions in financial markets;
• actively cooperates with clients of brokerage companies to identify violations;
• it can conduct its own investigations, as well as bring fraudsters to administrative responsibility, transfer cases to the court;
• applies penalties to companies;
• cooperates with the Australian Federal police.

Thus, ASIC is a medium-sized regulatory organization that, on the one hand, successfully copes with its functions of protecting clients of brokerage companies, but on the other hand, all the actions of the regulator are mainly aimed at detecting fraudulent actions and monitoring banking operations. ASIC is known as the strictest regulator, it imposes huge fines, but does not compensate the losses of affected traders and investors.