A new enforcement unit has been proposed as a way of improving the Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s (ASIC) policing of white-collar crime and misconduct.

This suggestion and others arose from an internal review ASIC ordered last October after Treasury finished an assessment of its enforcement practices.

ASIC General Counsel Chris Savundra has outlined the proposals in a letter to the Hayne royal commission.

The proposed Office of Enforcement would be modelled on similar set-ups in jurisdictions including the UK, US, New Zealand and Hong Kong.

“That Office of Enforcement will pursue uniform processes and procedures, which will overlay the current ASIC enforcement activities and specialist teams involved in enforcement,” Mr Savundra said.

The unit’s operational guidelines would focus on “deterrence, public denunciation and punishment of wrongdoing by way of litigation, and not by the pursuit of negotiated outcomes”.

ASIC is considering the proposals. The regulator has been heavily criticised for apparently preferring a light-touch approach to punishment.