In preparation for the commencement of the crowd-sourced funding (CSF) regime on 29 September 2017 the Corporations Amendment (Crowd-sourced Funding) Regulations 2017 have been registered.

The regulations amend the Corporations Regulations 2001 to prescribe the class of securities that may be offered, the minimum content of offer documents, the content requirements of risk warnings, the checks intermediaries must undertake and when conduct will not constitute providing financial product advice.

ASIC has released two consultation papers proposing guidance for public companies and intermediaries (i.e. crowd funding platform operators) to assist them in using the new regime.

Under the CSF regime, eligible public companies will be able to make offers of ordinary shares to a large number of investors, via an online platform of an Australian financial services licensed intermediary.

It is expected that the regime will be extended to proprietary companies.