Government consults on stock market regulations


The Government has released for consultation new regulations relating to the way the Australian Investment and Securities Commission (ASIC) can recover costs from stock brokers in a multi-operator environment now that Chi-X has been given the green light to operate a second market in Australia.
The exposure draft of the Corporations (Fees) Amendment Regulations 2011 "prescribes the fee amounts or the method of calculation to be used when charging both market operators and market participants on financial markets in Australia," according to Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation, Bill Shorten.
In the past the Australian Securities Exchange supervised the share market and recovered costs through fees on market participants, but now that ASIC is responsible for market supervision across multiple markets those costs need to be borne by market operators and market participants directly, according to a Treasury statement.
Shorten said he has decided to form a stakeholder panel to be chaired by Treasury, to provide stakeholder perspectives to Government on future ASIC financial market supervision proposals and approaches for cost recovery.
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