International Law

Draft new access to member register rules and increased market offence penalties

By David Jacobson

Treasury has released an Exposure Draft of the Corporations Amendment (No 1) Bill 2010 for consultation.

Access to member register
The Bill amends the Corporations Act and the Corporations Regulations to change the procedures for accessing information kept on company member registers. The measures will:

• require persons seeking a copy of the register of members to apply to the company, stating the purpose for which they will use the register;
• provide that where a register is maintained on a computer that it should be able to be inspected on a computer;
• provide for the Corporations Regulations to prescribe the formats in which a copy of the register can be provided; and
• establish a tiered fee structure for those seeking access to the register.

Penalties
The Bill also amends the Corporations Act and the ASIC Act to:

• increase the magnitude of criminal penalties that can be imposed for breaches of the insider trading and market manipulation provisions of the Corporations Act;
• allow for telecommunications interception warrants to be applied for in the course of investigations into those offences;
• enhance ASIC?s search warrant power to enable ASIC to apply for a search warrant under the ASIC Act without first having to issue a notice to produce the material; and
• clarify criminal liability in section 1041B of the Corporations Act in accordance with the requirements of the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Criminal Code).

Off-market offers
Amendments to the ASIC Regulations will remove provisions that currently provide that a person who makes an off market offer is exempt from the unconscionable conduct provisions where they make certain disclosures.

The Corporations Act will also be amended to clarify the intended application of existing legislation to confirm that off?market offers to purchase financial products must remain open for at least one month.

Full post as published by Australian Regulatory Compliance Review on May 20, 2010 (boomark / email).