Joseph Longo, the chairman of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) is calling for a regulatory loophole to be closed that allowed FTX to acquire an Australian Financial Services License (AFSL) in the country without the full suite of checks.
Longo defended his regulatory body when being grilled on how, and why the regulator let FTX acquire an AFSL under its watch, explaining that a regulatory loophole prevented ASIC from intervening or conducting the proper checks.
FTX Australia later began operating in Mar. 2022.
Related: Digital assets could add $40B a year to Aussie GDP: Tech Council report In response, Senator Deborah O’Neill stressed that the loophole allowing FTX to essentially have an ASIC sign-off without being investigated by the regulator presents a worrying prospect to Australian consumers.
“FTX has had little or no [corporate] governance.
We are talking about a real cowboy who came in, paid the price [for an AFSL] ... An AFSL was ticked off for all intents and purposes from ASIC ... but there is huge risk here,” she added.
Source: Cointelegraph
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