ASIC pledges regulatory simplification for small businesses

In her address to the summit, O’Rourke noted the motivation and key driver behind the program was based on the small business sector being the watchdog’s largest stakeholder group, despite it being widely known for its enforcement action for large or well-known entities.

However, despite this affiliation, it was noted that this enforcement action was usually taken to “help ensure a fair playing field and protect small businesses from unfair practices and harmful conduct”.

“We regularly take regulatory and enforcement action, for example, against financial services and credit providers that engage in misconduct that impacts small business – and we have a dedicated small business enforcement team,” O’Rourke said.

“We also have a highly active small business team, who engage with government agencies, industry associations and small business representatives to share insights, improve regulatory coordination, and minimise duplication and unnecessary burden for small businesses.”

The regulatory simplification program was set to be a multi-year program designed to make it easier for regulated entities to meet their obligations.

“We understand that small businesses are often time-poor and resource stretched. Unlike the big corporates, they don’t have legions of support staff to help out.”

“So, it’s very much a DIY situation – and that means time out of a very busy day. Time that could have been spent doing business.”

The program was designed to “give small businesses time back” with four workstreams of: improving access to regulatory information, reducing complexity in regulatory instruments, easier interactions with ASIC, and simplification through law reform.

From these areas, O’Rourke said improving access to regulatory information and easier interaction with ASIC would be the two areas that would be effective in making the biggest difference to small businesses.

O’Rourke outlined that ASIC had worked to make access to information easier by redesigning its website to make important information more accessible, as well as making that information “simpler and clearer”.

“This is an important audience group for us – and one that has distinct needs. We appreciate that it can be difficult for them to find materials that really help them – and it can be equally difficult to find the time to engage with them if they do,” she said.

“One way we’re working to address their needs is through a regulatory roadmap we’re developing for small-company directors. This will guide users through all the stages of starting and running a company – as well as closing and/or reinstating it.”

Another crucial area which needed improvement for small businesses was the ability to interact with the regulator, as there were multiple portals, each with its own purpose, access and authentication methods, which created a fragmented experience for users.

O’Rourke revealed that to deal with this, ASIC had brought in a multi-year program of work to improve its business registry-related technology and processes.

The program, known as RegistryConnect, would aim to stabilise, secure and modernise the ASIC registers to enable more reliable interactions and improve the quality and integrity of its registry data.

ASIC has also committed to upgrading and improving its email lodgement process, upgrading its mainframe, refreshing professional registers search, online company registration and lodgement services improvements, and streamlining digital services to support more professional registrations and licence types.

“We are also working to improve the integrity of the data held on our registers by strengthening our authentication processes. This will reduce the risk of fraudulent or misleading lodgements and provide greater assurance to users and the public,” O’Rourke said.

“Lastly, another key priority will be to link director IDs to the companies register. Over time, this will improve the traceability of director–company relationships and further prevent the use of fraudulent identities.”

“In doing so, it will provide the public and stakeholders, including small businesses, with greater certainty about who they are dealing with when engaging with directors and corporate entities. We will also continue to engage with Treasury and others, including on policy and law reform to improve registry outcomes.”