By: Lucinda McCann, Partner; Nikki Bentley, Partner;Jon
Ireland, Partner and Amanda Velonis, Lawyer
Enforceable undertakings (EUs) are a regulatory tool used by the
Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) for dealing
with breaches by Australian financial services (AFS) licensees and
their officers of their financial services obligations. In recent
years we have seen EUs experience a resurgence and ASIC has used
them extensively: for example, the ASIC Enforceable Undertakings
Register reveals that 27 EUs were accepted in 2013 and 6 have
already been accepted in 2014. By contrast, during the period
between 2006 and 2010, ASIC only accepted 10 undertakings on
average per year1 . Accordingly, the regulatory trend
seems to be that ASIC will continue to use EUs as an alternative to
civil or administrative action where it considers that it will
provide a more effective regulatory outcome
