ASIC has released the updated Regulatory Guide 69: Debentures–improving disclosure for retail investors.

ASIC has refined some aspects of the practical implementation in the regulatory guide by clarifying:

• the disclosure benchmarks for: equity capital, liquidity, loan portfolio, valuations, and lending principles;
• the disclosure obligations for issuers who on-lend funds indirectly through a related party;
• that the guide does not apply to debentures that are to be quoted on a financial market, or to debentures that are convertible into listed securities at the discretion of the investors; and
• the auditors’ report on the benchmarks.

When auditing the annual financial report of the issuer, ASIC expects issuers to engage their auditors to provide a separate report in relation to the benchmarks. A pro forma ‘auditor’s benchmark report’ is available to meet this requirement.