The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has announced that will begin accepting applications under its new crowd sourced funding  (CSF) regime from 29 September 2017 onwards. From this date, applications can be submitted via the existing ASIC ‘eLicensing’ portal.

In preparation for the commencement of the CSF regime, ASIC has released an information sheet outlining:

1. the expected application process and timeframe; and

2. its approach of assessing applicants.

During the period between 29 September 2017 and 27 October 2017, ASIC will assess applications lodged on similar dates in ‘batches.’ Successful applications from each batch will progress broadly at the same time. Incomplete or inadequate applications lodged during this period may be refused or placed in later application batches. Applications which are lodged from 27 October 2017 onwards will be considered individually as soon as possible.

ASIC cautions that while the timeframe for its assessment of any given application may vary on a case-by-case basis, it should be similar to the processing times for other AFS licences (which may take up to 60 days).

In addition to the standard ASIC licensing documentation, CSF applicants will be assessed by their:

• responses to its C11 questions, each of which relates to the applicant’s proposed documented processes for its operation under the CSF regime;

• provision of information in the C11 proof such as the standard terms of the applicant’s hosting agreement with eligible CSF companies; and

• response to the B5 Adequacy of resources (additional non-core proof documents) – Information Technology Capacity Statement.

Due to the expected interest in this new regime, it is strongly recommended that applicants submit their applications as close to the 29 September 2017 as possible in order to come under the first batch of applications.

Felix Charlesworth also contributed to this article.