Role and Effectiveness of ASIC Compared with the SEC: Shedding Light on Regulation and Enforcement in the United States and Australia

Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s (ASIC) regulatory oversight of securities and financial markets has increased considerably over time. However, the wisdom of this model has recently been challenged by the Hayne Royal Commission as ASIC’s enforcement activities were found to be relatively toothless. Accordingly, many criticised the agency and called for further ASIC reform. After the Global Financial Crisis, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) faced similar criticisms of regulatory failure. As such, this paper analyses the SEC regulatory structure, enforcement activities, and governmental resources and compares certain indicators of effectiveness such as the number of employees, budgets, and enforcement activities with those of ASIC over the past quarter-century. By comparing ASIC with the world’s biggest capital market regulator, the SEC, this paper analyses the viability of further reform of ASIC, and argues that ASIC is woefully under-resourced to engage in increased enforcement action.