Regulation Impact Statement – Department of the Treasury
On 24 November 2016, the Government introduced the Corporations Amendment (Crowd-sourced Funding) Bill 2016. The Bill establishes a regulatory framework to facilitate crowd-sourced funding by small, unlisted public companies. The crowd-sourced funding (CSF) regime includes:
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eligibility requirements for a company to fundraise via CSF, including disclosure requirements for CSF offers;
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obligations of a CSF intermediary in facilitating CSF offers;
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the process for making CSF offers;
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rules relating to defective disclosure as part of a CSF offer;
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investor protection provisions; and
- temporary relief for new public companies eligible to crowdfund from certain reporting and governance requirements.
The Bill also provides the Minister with greater flexibility to exempt financial market clearing and settlement facility operators from some of the requirements of the Australian Market Licence, and clearing and settlement facility licensing regimes.
A Regulation Impact Statement (RIS) was prepared and certified by the Treasury, and was assessed as compliant and consistent with best practice by the Office of Best Practice Regulation (OBPR).
The RIS estimates the regulatory cost at $50.9 million per annum, and identifies offsets. The OBPR has agreed to the regulatory cost and offset estimates.