ASIC claim HFT not cause for concern in Australia

ASIC/government-and-regulation/australian-market/united-states/stock-market/australian-securities-and-investments-commission/

29 April 2014
| By Staff |
image
image
expand image

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has rebuffed any suggestions that high frequency trading (HFT) is a problem within the local stock market and stated that its ‘lack of hysteria' should not be mistaken for complacency.

ASIC also stated that recent news reports in the Unites States claiming that HFT was being used to manipulate US exchanges were not comparable with the situation in the Australian market, as the two were regulated in different ways.

The comments follow the recent publication of a book in the United States which claims that firms employing HFT were able to leap ahead of other investors and have billions of dollars exploiting time differences in stock trades.

ASIC said there were no parallels between these claims and the Australian market and "any suggestion that high-frequency trading is pervasive in Australia is simply not supported by the evidence".

In its statement on HFT, ASIC said that the Australian market had a much smaller proportion of the market that conducted HFT and that ASIC had put in place a number of restrictions on the activity that restrained its growth.

"While some local media commentators have suggested that ASIC is doing little in regard to HFT, the truth is in fact quite different," the regulator said.

"ASIC's lack of hysteria regarding high-frequency trading should not be mistaken for complacency."

The regulator stated it had established a taskforce in 2012 to examine HFT, and since then had taken appropriate action when required, introduced a new market surveillance system and made changes to the regulatory framework relating to securities trading.

Read more about:

AUTHOR

Recommended for you

sub-bgsidebar subscription

Never miss the latest news and developments in wealth management industry

MARKET INSIGHTS

So we are now underwriting criminal scams?...

2 months 1 week ago

Glad to see the back of you Steve. You made financial more expensive, not more affordable as you claim, and presided ...

2 months 1 week ago

Completely agree Peter. The definition of 'significant change is circumstances relevant to the scope of the advice' is s...

4 months 1 week ago

The corporate regulator has issued infringement notices to three AFSLs whose financial advisers provided personal advice to a retail client while unregistered....

1 day 13 hours ago

A Sydney financial adviser has been permanently banned from providing any financial services, with the regulator deriding his “lack of integrity, trustworthiness and prof...

4 weeks ago

ASIC has released the results of its first adviser exam to be held in 2025, with 241 candidates attempting the test....

6 days 12 hours ago

TOP PERFORMING FUNDS

ACS FIXED INT - AUSTRALIA/GLOBAL BOND