ASIC tiptoes around private markets intervention

A SIC chair Joe Longo is keeping all options open before the corporate watchdog is forced to intervene in the private markets, he told the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors (ACSI).

- Karren Vergara

Longo said ASIC is prepared to engage with industry bodies, such as ACSI, rather than directly intervene in the growing private markets sector that until recently has flown under any regulator's radar.

"Or is there a role for the state to pull levers to say, 'we need to be standardising that approach to valuations, or we need to be raising expectations on some element of corporate governance?'," he said.

"From my perspective, ASIC's role [is] how can we help make the system work better? And to my mind, we can't really do that, and this really goes to the heart of the public-private markets paper we published a few weeks ago. We really can't be a player on that question unless we know what's going on and are open minded and prepared to engage."