Australia’s corporate regulator has amended its Market Integrity Rules to strengthen controls over automated and AI-enabled trading while simplifying overlapping requirements for securities and futures market participants.
ASIC said on 5 November that the changes require participants to maintain stronger testing, monitoring and governance around trading systems and algorithms. The rules are technology-neutral and cover algorithms using artificial intelligence or machine learning as well as other automated strategies.
The amendments modernise trading-system obligations, apply relevant requirements consistently to manually entered and automated orders, and bring standards for securities and futures participants closer together. They also clarify when trading activity may create a false or misleading appearance, including conduct generated by an AI-enabled system.
ASIC linked the reforms to the increasing automation of Australian markets and to the risk that algorithms can behave in opaque or unpredictable ways. The regulator has aligned the framework more closely with international principles for algorithmic trading while removing provisions it regards as redundant or unnecessarily prescriptive.
The amended rules will take effect in 2028. ASIC extended the transition period to 18 months after consultation. It is separately consulting on consolidated updates to Regulatory Guides 265 and 266 and proposes to retire Regulatory Guide 241, with the aim of reducing the volume of relevant guidance while preserving the substance of market-integrity controls.
