The secret ways of ASIC
Meanwhile, the ASX takes haplessness to new heights.
Last week, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission announced the two-year trial of a compressed pre-IPO process, reducing by seven days the period between a prospectus being lodged and new shares trading on the Australian Securities Exchange.
This change was one of many proposed by a bloc of investment banks, led by JPMorgan, in a confidential submission to ASIC last year.
After the existence of the submission was revealed in November by The Australian, I lodged a Freedom of Information request to receive a copy of it, plus any related documents, minutes and correspondence between ASIC, the petitioning banks and the ASX.
Incredibly, ASIC denied my request on the basis that releasing the submission or any of the 36 other relevant documents would – among other things – breach the confidence of, and cause detriment to, the soliciting investment banks, and "[harm] the development of sound decision-making".
The irony of ASIC invoking the imperative of sound decision-making is quite spectacular. Six months later, the corporate regulator has gone ahead and modified the process of admitting companies to Australia's public market on the explicit basis of commercial rationale it has blocked public access to. If the recommendations of JPMorgan et al were so essential for the regulator to act upon, why is their supporting evidence top secret?