The chairman of Australia’s financial services regulator has held out the prospect of an industry disclosure standard for covered bonds receiving regulatory backing, saying ASIC is looking to bodies such as the ASF to develop relevant standards similar to those for RMBS.

Speaking at an Australian Securitisation Forum conference on Monday, Greg Medcraft, chairman, Australian Securities & Investments Commission, said that his organisation and the Treasury are considering the policy merits of providing regulatory backing to industry standards that have been developed for RMBS and which ASIC looks forward to being introduced for covered bonds.

“ASIC is looking to industry bodies such as the ASF to develop relevant disclosure standards similar to those that have been introduced for RMBS,” he said, inviting industry to shares its views on whether an industry disclosure standard should have regulatory backing.

However, Medcraft said that the provision of regulatory backing to such standards would represent a departure from the prevailing policy approach in corporations law of focusing the disclosure regime on retail investors.

“Currently, there is no disclosure regime for financial products (such as RMBS and covered bonds) that are issued to wholesale investors,” he said.

ASIC is Australia’s corporate, markets, and financial services regulator, set up under the ASIC Act but carrying out most of its work under the Corporations Act.

ASF released RMBS best practice disclosure standards last year and has suggested that “all issues in the Australian debt capital market comply with the standard after 1 July 2012”.

Medcraft noted that the standards take effect from January 2012 and said ASIC will assess the uptake.