Better disclosure for investors

The AICD has been successful on behalf of members in obtaining a more flexible approach to analysts' briefings from the Australian Securities and Investments.

 In its original proposal (Heard it on the Grapevine), ASIC took a prescriptive view on the issue of public company disclosure and AICD in its submission to ASIC argued that such a view would lead to an overload of non-material information and thus likely to increase compliance costs. AICD also said that the proposals were likely to reduce the availability of valuable information by reducing the effectiveness of analysts. ASIC has subsequently revised its original document and the release of Better Disclosure for Investors is a sensible and flexible approach in providing guidance to companies under the Corporations Law. Key principles include:

• Establishing written policies and procedures on information disclosure that focus on continuous disclosure and improving access to information for all investors;

• Establishing a website on which information is disclosed as soon as it is disclosed to the market; and,

• Nominating a senior officer to ensure compliance with the continuous disclosure and overseeing and coordinating information disclosure to the stock exchange, analysts, brokers, shareholders, the media and the public.

The AICD together with the Investment and Financial Services Association and the Securities Institute have established an industry working group to establish "best practice" guidelines for companies in complying with their obligations and assisting analysts in examining their practices regarding price sensitive information.

Disclaimer

The purpose of this database is to provide a full-text record of all articles that have appeared in the CDJ since February 1997. It is aimed to assist in the research and reference process. The database has a full-text index and will enable articles to be easily retrieved.It should be noted that information contained in this database is in pre-publication format only - IT IS NOT THE FINAL PRINTED VERSION OF THE CDJ - therefore there might be slight discrepancies between the contents of this database and the printed CDJ.