The Australian Securities and Investments Commission will maintain its zero-tolerance policy on activities that undermine faith in the financial markets, according to Chairman Greg Medcraft.

He says trust and confidence are the twin pillars for well-functioning markets.

“I want to emphasise that trust and confidence… can take decades to build – particularly in our fast-paced markets today – and minutes or sometimes seconds to destroy,” Mr Medcraft said.

“We saw this on a grand scale during the global financial crisis, when investors lost confidence in the market and stayed on the sidelines.

“Markets can only properly fund the real economy if investors and issuers have trust and confidence in them.”

He says the commission has undertaken various initiatives to increase confidence in financial markets, including improving the equity market’s listing standards, technology systems and cyber resilience.

“To ensure market integrity, we need market infrastructure that is robust, where trading, clearing and settlement of transactions is fair, orderly and transparent, and where market misconduct is minimised.”