On 9 July 2025, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) announced that it was seeking feedback on proposals to remake two legislative instruments relating to digital disclosure.

ASIC also proposes to update Regulatory Guide 221 Facilitating digital financial services disclosures (RG 221).

Background

Under the Legislation Act 2003, all legislative instruments are automatically repealed, or ‘sunset’, after 10 years, unless ASIC takes action to preserve them.

Legislative instruments

ASIC is seeking feedback to remake two legislative instruments which are scheduled to sunset on 1 October 2025.

The legislative instruments are:

  • ASIC Corporations (Facilitating Electronic Delivery of Financial Services Disclosure) Instrument 2015/647.
  • ASIC Corporations (Removing Barriers to Electronic Disclosure) Instrument 2015/649.

These instruments allow financial services providers to publish disclosure digitally and notify clients that it is available (the ‘publish and notify method’) and relax certain requirements for digital disclosures.

ASIC has assessed that the instruments are operating effectively and efficiently and continue to form a necessary and useful part of the legislative framework.

ASIC proposes to remake the two electronic disclosure instruments for a period of five years.

RG 221

ASIC is proposing certain updates to RG 221 including:

  • Simplifying the drafting of the guidance.
  • Updating any outdated references to legislation, regulations, and legislative instruments.
  • Revising Section D of RG 221 to centralise guidance on digital disclosure practices and include references to relevant legislative obligations.
  • Updating examples of digital disclosures methods to better reflect that ASIC does not mandate a particular method of digital disclosure.

Next steps

The deadline for comments on ASIC’s proposals is 6 August 2025.