Assistant Treasurer Bill Shorten has unveiled draft laws allowing ASIC to collect fees from stockbrokers.
The draft laws, released yesterday, set out fees to be paid by stockbrokers and other market participants for ASIC's supervision and allowing ASIC to collect those fees.
"The exposure draft of the Corporations (Fees) Amendment Regulations 2011 were released for consultation today," Shorten said in a statement.
The move follows the shift in supervisory responsibility for Australia's domestic financial markets on 1 August 2010 from market operators, including the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), to ASIC.
The draft laws signal ASIC's growing muscle as a financial markets regulator as it takes over from the listed ASX as the overseer of Australia's stock market.
Shorten said competition in Australian financial markets would deliver better returns for investors by giving them more choice and better prices.
"This is expected to attract new players, new trading strategies and new liquidity. We are already seeing the benefits of competition through Chi-X's announcement of a competitive trading fee schedule as it prepares to launch in competition with the ASX," he said in a statement.
Chi-X is set to start trading at the end of the month after ASIC said it had cleared all pre-conditions for licensing.
Stockbrokers and other market participants previously paid the ASX indirectly as the stock exchange operator included the costs in its overall fees.
"The draft regulations prescribe the fee amounts or the method of calculation to be used when charging both market operators and market participants on financial markets in Australia," Shorten said.
He also said he would form a stakeholder panel, which would meet quarterly and be chaired by Treasury.
The panel's role would be to provide stakeholder perspectives to government on future ASIC financial market supervision proposals and approaches for cost recovery, he said.
The draft regulations are slated to take effect on 1 January.
