ASIC has released its Corporate Plan for 2019-2023 and small business remains a large and important stakeholder for ASIC, reflected in the plan鈥檚 action items for this financial year.
ASIC Commissioner John Price said, 鈥榃ith small businesses comprising 96% of all companies registered with ASIC, their success is critically important to the Australian economy. As Australia鈥檚 regulator for companies, financial markets and providers of financial services and consumer credit, ASIC works to help small business succeed and to ensure a level playing field for honest small business owners.鈥�
In the financial year ahead, ASIC will continue to review lenders鈥� compliance with small business protections in light of the changes to unfair contract terms legislation as well as maintain engagement with important external stakeholders that have a key role to play in small business.
ASIC will also focus on assisting small business owners in culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities to increase their awareness of ASIC鈥檚 role in assisting, engaging with and helping to protect small business, while also helping them access the information they need to improve their financial acumen.
Last financial year, ASIC prosecuted 382 individuals for 827 offences for failure to keep books and records which is often a classic indicator of phoenix activity. ASIC will continue conducting surveillance of potential illegal phoenix activity,听which is estimated to cost businesses between $1.1 and $3.1 billion each year out of an overall cost to the economy of between $2.8 and $5.1 billion each year.
ASIC supports Government initiatives to combat illegal phoenix activity such as the Phoenix Taskforce and Serious Financial Crime Taskforce, as well as supporting the proposed phoenix activity reforms contained in the Treasury Laws Amendment (Combatting Illegal Phoenixing) Bill 2019.
Through 听ASIC remains committed to assisting, engaging and helping to protect small businesses. Key highlights for 2018-19 include:
- More听than 375,000 new business names and 220,000 new companies were registered,听and over 142 million searches of ASIC鈥檚 registers were conducted
- ASIC听responded to over 670,000 enquiries through its various communications听channels, and the small business page on ASIC鈥檚 website was viewed over听54,000 times.
- Over听14,500 downloads of the FirstBusiness App
- Refreshing听our small business online resources to make them easier to navigate
For more information on the work ASIC is doing with and for small business, see Report 571 ASIC and small business or view the .听