3 March 2022 - ASIC’s corporate governance priorities and the year ahead

ASIC Chair Joe Longo spoke at the Australian Institute of Company Directors Governance Summit.

Key points include:

• DDO moving from surveillance period to enforcement.  ASIC position:  Industry has been given sufficient time to bed down implementation to regime
• Governance failures relating to non-financial risk that result in significant harm to consumers and investors. Corporate culture and governance are not matters that you can ‘set and forget’; they are enduring priorities for boards.  Non-financial risk is key!!!
• Cyber governance and resilience failures. This is illustrated by current proceedings brought by ASIC against RI Advice Group, where we allege that it failed to have adequate policies, systems and resources to appropriately manage risk in respect of cyber security and cyber resilience.
• Climate–change disclosure for listed companies – ASIC is following developments closely and continues to participate in IOSCO’s sustainable finance taskforce, alongside our peer regulators. In light of this, it is important for directors to adopt a proactive approach.  Greenwashing very much in ASIC’s sights
• Whistleblowers  – ASIC says the majority of the whistleblower policies we reviewed were deficient, and three of the most prevalent and concerning deficiencies we saw were:
  • incomplete or inaccurate information
  • obsolete and out-of-date policies
  • policies without oversight arrangements.