CS 13 Extending relief for business introduction services

CS 13 Extending relief for business introduction services

Released 13 January 2025. Comments close 5 February 2025.

We are听inviting feedback on whether the relief under听, due to expire on 1 April 2025, should:

be extended for an additional period in relation to managed investment 91AVs, and听
reinstate previous relief from Chapter 6D of the听Corporations Act 2001 (Corporations Act) in relation to securities, other than debentures.

If you consider that this relief should be reinstated, your submission should explain the reasons for, and benefits of, reinstating the relief and why the crowd-sourced funding (CSF) regime in Part 6D.3A of the Corporations Act does not adequately accommodate small- to medium-scale capital raisings.

A consultation paper was not issued for this consultation.

Providing feedback

We invite feedback on our proposal. You should send your submissions to听IM.sunsettingconsultation@asic.gov.au听by 5 pm AEDT on 5 February 2025.

You can provide feedback anonymously or using an alias. However, we will not be able to contact you to discuss your feedback if you submitted it in this manner.

Your feedback will not be treated as confidential unless you specifically request that we treat the whole or part of it (such as any personal or financial information) as confidential.

Please see听our privacy policy听for more information about how we handle personal information, your rights to seek access to and correct personal information, and your right to complain about breaches of privacy by ASIC.

Background

Business introduction services identify potential investors for issuers or sellers by circulating information about investment opportunities.

Since 2002, ASIC has provided relief to persons involved in business introduction services. Class Order Business introduction and matching services gave conditional relief from the fundraising, financial product disclosure, hawking and advertising requirements in the Corporations Act that would apply to a person making or calling attention to offers, through a business introduction service of both securities and interests in managed investment 91AVs.

The effect of [CO 02/273] was extended in 2017 by .听It was extended again in 2019. At that time, we said the extension would provide time to assess the impact of the crowd sourced funding regime in Part 6D.3A of the Corporations Act on : see听Media Release (19-067MR) ASIC extends relief provided for business introduction services (25 March 2019). In 2022, following public consultation, we issued , which extended the relief for business introduction services for registered managed investment 91AVs until 1 April 2025.

We decided not to extend the same relief for securities, which relates to companies, on the basis that the CSF regime facilitated flexible and low-cost access to capital for small- to medium-sized unlisted companies: see听Media Release (22-267MR) ASIC remakes business introduction services relief for managed investment 91AVs (30 September 2022).

We also noted that the CSF regime had investor protection features implemented by Parliament and that disclosure relief was not required for offers to wholesale or sophisticated investors: see Report 723听Response to submissions on CP 357 Remaking relief for business introduction services听(搁贰笔听723). At the time, it did not appear that many business introduction services were relying on to help companies raise funds.

91AV