In line with the Morrison Government's commitments, today I am releasing for public consultation draft regulatory amendments to reduce and remove the fees for accessing certain information from the online business registries maintained by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).
The draft Regulations provides an exemption to journalists for ASIC's registry search fees. An exemption from these fees will facilitate free access to important information about companies and financial services providers.
The draft Regulations also cut existing search fees for accessing company roles and relationship extracts $40 to $19.
Separately, the draft Regulations also create a new sub-sector as part of ASIC's Industry Funding Model. This will allow ASIC to recover the regulatory costs incurred from its close and continuous monitoring of Australia's largest institutions.
Finally, the draft Regulations make other minor amendments to ensure ASIC's fees-for-services reflect ASIC's regulatory costs.
Comments on the draft Regulations close 8 February 2019. Stakeholders are invited to provide their feedback on the Treasury website.