Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Table of cases
- Table of statutes
- Preface
- PART ONE CORPORATE GOVERNANCE: AN OVERVIEW
- PART TWO CORPORATE GOVERNANCE IN AUSTRALIA
- 5 Corporate governance in Australia – background and business initiatives
- 6 Regulation of corporate governance
- 7 The role of the regulators: ASX and ASIC
- 8 CLERP 9 reforms to the Corporations Act
- PART THREE CORPORATE GOVERNANCE IN PRACTICE
- PART FOUR CORPORATE GOVERNANCE: AN INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE
- PART FIVE CORPORATE GOVERNANCE: GOING FORWARD
- Index
7 - The role of the regulators: ASX and ASIC
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Table of cases
- Table of statutes
- Preface
- PART ONE CORPORATE GOVERNANCE: AN OVERVIEW
- PART TWO CORPORATE GOVERNANCE IN AUSTRALIA
- 5 Corporate governance in Australia – background and business initiatives
- 6 Regulation of corporate governance
- 7 The role of the regulators: ASX and ASIC
- 8 CLERP 9 reforms to the Corporations Act
- PART THREE CORPORATE GOVERNANCE IN PRACTICE
- PART FOUR CORPORATE GOVERNANCE: AN INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE
- PART FIVE CORPORATE GOVERNANCE: GOING FORWARD
- Index
Summary
[HIH Insurance Ltd's collapse] is a tale of scoundrels – crooks even, who jockey and grasp and concoct the most ingenious ways to pocket HIH's cash while they still can. Well-placed mates help well-placed mates … Mortgages are forgiven, bonuses awarded, dodgy invoices are fast-tracked and cheques are somehow cleared after the banks have closed. But policy-holders get nothing because that is the new policy, and shareholders might as well not exist.
The Australian, Wednesday, 15 January 2003The Australian Stock Exchange Ltd (ASX)
Slow to get out of the blocks
The ASX was slow in following the examples of other stock exchanges in the world to develop and promote good corporate governance through a Code of Good Corporate Governance Practices and to promote compliance with such a Code by including a provision in its Listing Rules that companies that did not comply with such provisions should explain non-compliance in their annual reports. By the early 1990s, both the London Stock Exchange and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange had already included a Listing Rule to ensure compliance or an explanation of non-compliance with a Code of Best Practice. Until early 2003 the ASX chose to be ‘less prescriptive’, and resisted any change in its approach, despite being criticised by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) for not following the example of several other stock exchanges.
Prior to 2003, ASX Listing Rule 4.10 (originally introduced on 1 July 1996 as Listing Rule 3C(3)(j)) provided as follows:
4.10 An entity must include the following information in its annual report. […]
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Principles of Contemporary Corporate Governance , pp. 131 - 146Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005