ASIC sell-side research guide would shrink to eight pages from 42 under a draft the regulator released on Thursday, as it seeks to support more analyst coverage for IPOs and other capital raisings.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission said the new version would use broad principles instead of detailed rules. Sell-side research covers the analysis that investment banks and stockbrokers give clients, including notes sent before a float. ASIC said the rewrite forms part of a wider cleanup that has already removed more than 9,000 pages of regulatory material.
ASIC Sell-Side Research Guide Rules
The draft keeps several strict limits in place. Analyst pay cannot link to corporate advisory revenue. Research teams must also remain physically and technologically separate from advisory and sales desks. In addition, senior management must set research budgets without advisory input.
Analysts cannot pitch for capital raising mandates unless firms have wall-crossed them. Once that happens, they cannot publish research on the issuer until the deal ends. ASIC said its views on conflicts, inside information and research independence have not changed.
The draft also warns firms about analyst work on live deals. ASIC said firms need strong controls and should avoid such involvement where possible because it creates conflicts when analysts deal with advisory teams or issuers.
Broader Capital Markets Review
ASIC has spent the past 18 months working on the shrinking public market. It issued a discussion paper on public and private markets in February 2025. It then started a two-year fast-track IPO trial in June that year and published a capital markets roadmap in November.
Meanwhile, the regulator also widened access to listings. Cboe won approval in late 2025 to host IPOs and dual listings, which ended the ASX’s effective monopoly on new floats. BlackBull Markets, an Auckland-based CFD firm, also held a non-deal roadshow with Barrenjoey, UBS and Forsyth Barr before a possible Sydney and Wellington listing.
ASIC left one issue open in the ASIC sell-side research guide consultation. It asked for views on valuation details in investor education reports and on whether corporate advisory teams should fact check draft notes. The draft blocks advisory teams from that step and leaves it to compliance, legal advisers and the issuer, with all valuations removed.
A second consultation came out the same day. ASIC proposed lifting the transaction value threshold for low-volume financial markets to A$2.5 million from A$1.5 million. Feedback on that paper closes on August 20, while submissions on the research guide close a day later.
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Source: Finance Magnates
