The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has formed a new working group with regulators in the Asia Pacific to address Australia’s $2.7 billion losses to scammers and online harm.
ASIC will lead strategies to engage with tech platforms to mitigate harm, while the Monetary Authority of Singapore will create an information-sharing network to better identify scams. New Zealand’s Financial Markets Authority will spearhead global initiatives to enhance the investor alerts portal for IOSCO.
The authorities will share information on mitigating scams, analysing scam trends and understanding tactics used by scammers, victim profiles and behavioural insights.
ASIC Chairman Joe Longo highlighted that Australia lost $2.74 billion to scams in 2023, mainly through investment scams and romance fraud.
As part of the National Anti-Scam Centre, ASIC has removed around 5,000 questionable websites in the past 11 months but faced criticism for not publicising international scams enough.
“We already share information about scam types and methods across our different countries, but this group will help build up capacity and co-operation and bring our joint resources to bear on the issue,” Longo said.
ASIC received additional government funding to bolster efforts against scams. Longo emphasised the importance of international cooperation and the need to address global issues like sustainable finance, artificial intelligence, and market regulations.
Longo will keep a keen eye on investment scammers. “The ones causing the most financial losses are investment scams,” Longo said.
“But the key thing for me coming out of this conference is that in Australia, we’re not behind.’’
International Ethics Standards
At the IOSCO annual conference, the introduction of International Ethics Standards for Sustainability Assurance was confirmed, aiming to support the transition from carbon to renewables.
Longo stated ASIC would facilitate companies in implementing these standards but would take a stricter approach in cases of intentional noncompliance or greenwashing.
“I was struck this time about how consistent what we are looking at; the global people are also looking at. These are scams, sustainable finance, artificial intelligence and private and public markets which affect everybody with Australian super.”
Longo said ASIC “punched above its weight internationally”.
The standards facilitate efficient capital allocation to fund the transition from carbon to renewable energy, providing confidence to major banks, governments, hedge funds and investors.
“We want to get away from coal to cleaner energy,’’ he said, adding, “we want projects to succeed, and the way they’re going to succeed is that the investors understand what they’re investing in, what the risks are, these disclosures. So we get the standards right, we implement them right. It will support sustainable funding.”