ASIC will decide whether it will seek compensation for investors of collapsed advice firm Storm Financial (Storm) in the coming months, the corporate regulator's chairman has said.
Tony D'Aloisio last week told a parliamentary joint committee that internal discussions about the collapsed advice firm were ongoing and a decision was expected by August.
"As I advised Senate estimates on 4 June, our investigations in relation to the collapse of Storm Financial are continuing. These investigations extend to possible action to recover compensation under section 50 of the ASIC Act against all involved, including financiers," D'Aloisio said.
"We have set an internal objective for us to hopefully be able to make decisions on those matters by the end of August, but it is very much an internal objective."
He told the committee he and fellow ASIC commissioner Peter Boxall would be responsible for Storm-related issues following the departure of ASIC deputy chairman Jeremy Cooper.
Upon learning he would take charge of Storm, committee chair Bernie Ripoll questioned his ability to cope with his various responsibilities.
"The commission reviews this regularly. We have a monthly commission meeting and strategy issues and resources are always discussed because of the number of matters and the significance of the matters," D'Aloisio said.
"The government has given us the additional resources in relation to credit and a number of other matters. As chairman, I feel confident that I can raise it with government if we feel we do need additional resources.
"Whether we would get those or not is a matter to be discussed, but at this stage the commission feels that, in the foreseeable future, given what we have and what we think will happen, we do have adequate resources."
