The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has concluded after a three-week investigation that there’s no proof certain stockbroking firms and investment houses engaged in insider trading in the lead-up to AMP’s demerger announcement on May 1.

ASIC was concerned that late movements in a futures contract on April 30 may have been the result of trading with prior knowledge of the AMP’s demerger. But ASIC Chairman David Knott told ABC’s Business Sunday program that insider trading “would have been a very inefficient way to exercise inside knowledge of the AMP proposals”.