Backtracking........looks like ASIC have been prevented from what they need to
do their job properly........why?
ASIC's miserable excuses are woeful. They area direct cause of the banker
scandals wandering on for 15 years!!! Notice Medcraft today as always
forgets to mention the word Low Doc.
ASIC bleats it wants money - to do what exactly? Same ole nothing!
ASIC had powers to deal with Bank funded Spruikers in 2003. They wait until
all these spruikers are moved by Banks offshore? Are you kidding me?
ASIC warns it cannot do its job without access to metadata
December 3 2014
The head of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission has warned that the corporate regulator will not be able to do its job properly if it does not have access to critical metadata that other enforcement agencies such as the federal police and ASIO have access to.
ASIC chairman Greg Medcraft told the National Press Club on Wednesday that access to metadata was critical to investigate insider trading and market manipulation, as well as superannuation fraud. But under the Abbott government's new data retention regime, which enhances the ability of law enforcement agencies to investigate terrorism and other criminal activities, it has not been given special clearance by the government.It is not one of the dozen agencies given access to metadata in the amending bill.
It means ASIC's ability to investigate insider trading cases, or the current interest rate rigging scandal that is rocking ANZ bank, would be severely curtailed and in some cases impossible. "We will be making a submission to the government [on this]," Mr Medcraft said on Wednesday. "We're an enforcement agency and we believe we should be classified as an enforcement agency under that act. It's very simple."
The corporate regulator has been investigating potential misconduct in Australia's bank bill swap rate (BBSW) market between 2007 and 2013. ANZ announced last month that seven of its traders had been suspended pending the investigation, while ASIC announced that it is now investigating some of Australia's other big banks.
Mr Medcraft has previously warned that investigations into other Australian banks could go on for years. It comes as property spruikers are moving their seminars to places like Vanuatu to avoid getting an Australian financial licence.
ASIC has used the example to defend its use of laws that potentially allow it to block websites believed to be fraudulent or illegal. The law, section 313 of the Telecommunications Act, got the Australian Securities and Investments Commission into trouble in April last year when it accidentally blocked 250,000 non-illegal websites, including the Melbourne Free University.
ASIC told a parliamentary inquiry on Wednesday that it used the law to ban individual scam websites – not as "blanket censorship". ASIC commissioner Greg Tanzer said the regulator had witnessed cases of investment spruikers moving property seminars abroad, inviting people to Vanuatu to avoid meeting Australian licence requirements. He said this was typical of the type of website the regulator wanted to restrict.
On Wednesday, Mr Medcraft said he would like to see penalties introduced in Australia that "scare the pants off" white-collar criminals to increase the deterrent effect. "Everyone knows that often when someone is thinking about breaking the law, the possibility of getting caught and facing jail or a massive fine is a very big deterrent," he said.
"What we really need [are] penalties that amplify the fear ... we need penalties that actually mean that if you have an ill-gotten gain the penalty should be a multiple of that gain."
"In most jurisdictions, it's two or three times the amount that was improperly gained."