ASIC times analyst announcement
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has sought to media manage an announcement that it intends to focus more sharply on communications between publicly-listed companies and the investment analysts that cover their stocks.
In a rare move by the regulator, it made its announcement about the crack-down on analyst briefings on the weekend — and then made senior officers available for interview with media outlets. The move comes at the same time as ASIC faces scrutiny by a Parliamentary committee over its handling of a Commonwealth Financial Planning enforceable undertaking and other issues.
Within the weekend announcement, ASIC commissioner Cathie Armour said the regulator's priority was to ensure fair and efficient final markets.
"All investors — large and small — should have access to equal information from listed entities when making their investment decisions," she said.
The announcement said that, over coming weeks, ASIC would be working to raise awareness of the risks of selective disclosure when listed companies briefed analysts.
"ASIC will be reminding key gatekeepers, company officers, individual analysts and their firms, of their obligations," it said.
It said that, in addition, ASIC would look to conduct spot checks with selected companies "so we can hear how companies brief analysts and understand their procedures".
"We anticipate that companies and securities houses will be pleased to assist us in this exercise to promote market integrity," the ASIC statement said.
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