ASIC is back with new ways to ‘fix things’ following damaging testimony in yet another Senate Estimates hearing this week. Whatever the fix might be, holding Big 4 accountants or big corporates to account is still not in the corporate regulator’s plans. Michael West and Kim Wingerei report.

You could drive a truck through it, no make that a road train – ASIC’s view of itself that is, versus that of its critics.

In this week’s Senate hearing, the Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB) told Senator Deborah O’Neill that ASIC had refused the AASB access to the financial accounts of the Big 4 (EY, PwC, Deloitte and KPMG) because “it might offend”. Instead, the AASB had to purchase the data from a third-party (private) company.

Source: ASIC. Big fat cash-cow or world-class regulator? – Michael West