“Conduct risk” and the integrity of financial market benchmarks remains a high enforcement priority for the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), according to its report for the last half of 2017.

During the period ASIC removed 39 individuals from financial services, issued 63 infringement notices and received $2.9 million in fines.

Nearly 400 criminal charges were laid under summary prosecutions for strict liability offences, and $159.4 million was paid in compensation and remediation.

One-quarter of financial services misconduct cases involved dishonest and misleading statements, 17% for being unlicensed, 31% for credit offences and 2% for misappropriation, theft and fraud. “Other financial services misconduct” accounted for 25%.

“We remain committed to ensuring that failure to meet disclosure obligations by entities and market abuse (e.g. insider trading and market manipulation) are addressed through enforcement action,” the regulator says in its report.

One-quarter of corporate governance misconduct cases involved action against liquidators, with action against directors totalling 19%, action against auditors 6% and insolvency 3%. “Other corporate governance misconduct” accounted for 47%.