Analysis of ASIC's Role and Investigative Powers in Corporate Law

This report examines the role of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) as a regulator of corporate, market, and financial services within Australia. Established under the ASIC Act 2001, ASIC aims to maintain fairness, transparency, and investor protection within the financial market. The report details ASIC's core functions, including ensuring investor trust, market stabilization, and skillful enlistment, all of which are underpinned by its investigative powers derived from Section 13 of the ASIC Act. Key powers discussed include the ability to issue summons, inspect corporate books, and initiate legal proceedings. The report further explores how ASIC's investigative powers are utilized in proactive phases such as governance, risk, and compliance, ultimately concluding that ASIC effectively utilizes its powers to maintain a fair and transparent financial market and protect investor interests.

ROLE OF ASIC AND ITS
INVESTIGATIVE POWERS

INTRODUCTION
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) is an independent
governmental body, which regulates the corporate, market and financial services of the
Australian market. It was established under the ASIC Act, 2001 and maximum of its
operations are carried out in accordance to the Corporations Act 2001. It essentially
functions to
 maintain fairness and transparency in the financial market of the nation;
 Protect the interests of investor;
 ensure compliance with procedural requirements under relevant law;
 enforce the relevant provisions of law;
 maintain a database of all the relevant information about the market and
effectively process it; and
 record the information of all the corporates which are existing in the market.

ROLE OF ASIC
The primary role of ASIC can be contained within the following three
fundamental priorities:
 to ensure trust and certainty to investors in the financial market;
 to ensure a stabilized market, with systematic functioning; and
 to acquire skilful and accessible enlistment.
It is further important to note that these above mentioned roles are played by ASIC
under the investigative power which are derived from section 13 of ASIC Act.

TRUST AND CERTAINTY TO
INVESTORS
The regulator is empowered to conduct formal investigation in the event of
violation of law by a corporate.
 Section 19: It has the power to issue summons to individuals and provide
any relavant information
 Section 29: It can also inspect the books of corporates, if required.
 Section 30: The power conferred by this section has been affirmed by the
courts in Australian Securities and Investments Commission v. Lanepoint
Enterprises Pty. Ltd. (2011). It essentially empowers ASCI to issue notice
addressing the relevant corporate for appearance and production of books of
accounts.
The case of Rich v Australian Securities and Investments Commission (2004) has
established that ASIC is also empowered to initiate civil as well as criminal
proceedings who are liable under relevant statues of ASIC .

STABILIZED MARKET WITH
SYSTEMATIC FUNCTIONING
In furtherance of this role, ASIC has been empowered to issue search
warrant under the Crimes Act. 1914. This has been affirmed by the courts in
Macleod v. ASIC (2002).
The investigative powers can be executed in following proactive phases:
 Governance(G)
 Risk(R)
 Compliance(C)

SKILLFUL AND ACCESSIBLE
ACQUISITION OF ENLISTMENT
 Section 912D: This section have made a brief explanation of certain
decisive action that are required to be taken up by the forum of ASIC
in order to settle down any existed concerns in its controlled sphere.
In this context, they are basically required to address some indecisive
complaints that has been reported by the participant bodies of ASIC.
This part is however concerned with a regimental act of Section 912D
that is referred to perform its relative obligations.

CONCLUSION
It has been demonstrated with the help of the presented information
that ASIC strives to provide a free and accredited audit of its customer's
requisitions. The operations of the regulator are primarily focused on
assuring the maintenance of fairness and transparency in the financial
market as well as effectively cater to the interests of the investors. In
order to attain this aim, ASIC makes an effective utilization of its
investigative powers under Section 13 of the ASIC Act.

REFERENCES
 Asic.gov.au. (2016). Our role ASIC - Australian Securities and Investments
Commission. [online] Available at:
http://asic.gov.au/about-asic/what-we-do/our-role/ [Accessed 15th October.
2016].
 Macleod v Australian Securities and Investments Commission [2002]HCA p.37.
 Rich v Australian Securities and Inverstments Commission [2004]HCA p.42.
 Australian Securities and Investments Commission v Lanepoint Enterprises Pty
Ltd (Receivers and Managers Appointed) [2011]HCA p.8.
 The Conversation. (2016). FactCheck: does ASIC already have the powers of a
royal commission and more?. [online] Available at:
https://theconversation.com/factcheck-does-asic-already-have-the-powers-of-a-
royal-commission-and-more-57666 [Accessed 15th October. 2016].

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