The corporate regulator said the Overview of decisions on relief applications provides information about the decisions ASIC makes when asked to exercise its discretionary powers and grant relief from the provisions of the Corporations Act 2001, the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 and the National Consumer Credit Protection Act.
The report stated that during the period ASIC awarded AFS licensing relief to a company operating a financial advice business and a superannuation trustee, disclosure relief to a demerged company, relief to resolve a dispute before the Takeovers Panel and relief to facilitate escrow arrangements on foreign exchange.
The regulator also granted relief to extend time for half-year financial reporting as well as interim relief from the obligations applying to reverse mortgages in relation to certain shared appreciation credit contracts.
In addition, ASIC granted class rule waivers to provide relief from Rule 4.1.1(1) of the ASIC Market Integrity Rules for ASX participants and to enable the ASX to offer auction imbalance orders on the ASX market without breaching Rule 4.1.2(1).
It also issued class rule waivers for Chi-X Australia participants to provide relief from the same rules.
ASIC refused relief for a number of applications, however, including relief for a company to rely on s.708AA of the Corporations Act 2001 for a proposed entitlement offer and relief for an online lending platform to register the platform under s.601ED of the Corporations Act.
It also refused an application for relief which would allow a bidder to dispatch their bidder’s statement within three days of lodgement rather than the minimum 14 days.
Applications to allow prohibited members to vote on an acquisition and to enable the acquisition of relevant interest by a company in its own shares were also refused.
