ASIC amends Market Integrity Rules to cover AI and algorithmic trading, effective 2028
ASIC has amended the Market Integrity Rules for securities and futures markets to require participants to test, monitor and govern their trading systems and algorithms, including AI and machine learning ones, and to clarify that AI-driven trading that creates a false or misleading appearance breaches the rules. The amendments take effect in 2028 after an 18-month transition; consultation on the updated guidance (RG 265 and RG 266) closes 5 November 2026.
This affects firms that trade on Australian securities and futures markets as ASIC market participants. If that is not you, nothing changes.
If it is you, the rules now make a trading algorithm your responsibility whether a person wrote it or a model learned it.
You must test it before it trades, watch it while it trades, and be able to show how you govern it. The rules are technology neutral, so a vendor’s AI trading tool is covered the same way as your own code. The false or misleading rule now expressly catches AI-driven trading that creates a false appearance in the market, whether or not anyone intended it.
You have time. The amendments commence in 2028, and ASIC extended the transition to 18 months after industry feedback. The practical step now is to list every trading algorithm you run, name who owns each one, and record how it is tested and monitored. That record is what ASIC will ask to see.
ASIC is also consulting on simpler guidance for market participants (updated RG 265 Guidance on ASIC market integrity rules for participants of securities markets, and RG 266 Guidance on ASIC market integrity rules for participants of futures markets, with RG 241 Electronic Trading withdrawn) until 5 November 2026. If the current guidance is problematic to apply, this is an opportunity to have your voice heard.
Applies to: ASIC market participants: securities and futures trading firms