Labor warns ASIC cuts threaten Australian fintech sector

Spokesman for the Digital Economy, Ed Husic, has slammed the Coalition’s budget cuts to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, saying it would hamper the regulator’s ability to keep on top of technology-led disruption occurring in the financial services sector.

Mr Husic told The Australian Financial Review it would also likely slowdown the process of reforming crowdsourced equity funding laws to open it up to unlisted public companies, and mean that it would be ill-equipped to properly monitor initial coin offerings.

“At a time when the banking royal commission is exposing massive shortcomings in the way banks are behaving with customers, cutting budget of the watchdog is a big concern and there will be a broader public requirement of the government to justify how that fits in the climate,” he said.

“More broadly, in fintech it’s also taking too long to get reforms bedded down and you have to wonder what these budget cuts will do. Will this make it worse? I think it will.”

The comments from Mr Husic come on the back of revelations that the corporate regulator’s permanent funding would be cut from $346 million to $320 million and staff numbers reduced by 30 investigators, as part of May’s federal budget.

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Source: Labor warns ASIC cuts threaten Australian fintech sector | afr.com