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After achieving $76.3 million in civil penalties in the second half of last year, the commission has expanded its focus areas for 2023.
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ASIC to target environmental frauds in wider agenda
16 February 2023
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The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has warned businesses that misleading sustainability claims will be part of a wider enforcement agenda for 2023 along with predatory pricing and deceptive insurance promises.
Deputy chair Sarah Court outlined its priorities as she released the commission’s 2022 final quarter enforcement and regulatory report.
She said this year ASIC would target sustainable finance practices and disclosure of climate risks, financial scams, cyber and operational resilience, and investor harms involving crypto-assets.
“We take our role to protect consumers and investors seriously and won’t hesitate to take action to protect consumers where we identify poor conduct,” she said.
“In the final months of last year we commenced a number of significant enforcement and regulatory actions to address misconduct, market integrity threats and consumer harms in sectors including financial services, retail and crypto.
“This includes corporate governance and directors’ duties, product design and distribution, and misleading statements involving sustainable finance practices.”
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ASIC took its first action on greenwashing in October 2022, issuing three operations with infringement notices for misleading sustainability-related statements.
Between July and December 2022, ASIC achieved 173 criminal charges (down from 178 on compared with the same period in the previous year), and $76.3 million in court-imposed civil penalties, down from $84.3 million.
However, the commission issued 66 bans against 52 and penalties paid increased to $368,520 to $110,250 in the same period.
It also issued 22 design and distribution stop orders in 2022 to prevent customers and investors from being targeted by products inappropriate to their objectives and financial situations. ASIC said it would increase its vigilance in protecting consumers from financial harm over the coming year.
Ms Court said the commission would also look to help the industry meet its obligations by providing easy-to-access guidance.
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