Company Securities Trading Policies: An Empirical Study
Company and Securities Law Journal, Vol. 30, No. 1, pp. 55-60, 2012
9 Pages Posted: 22 Feb 2012 Last revised: 30 Sep 2012
Date Written: February 21, 2012
Abstract
On 1 January 2011, the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) introduced into its listing rules a requirement for listed companies to adopt and disclose a policy relating to trading in the company’s securities by key management personnel during prohibited periods. The introduction of the requirement followed a report of the Corporations and Markets Advisory Committee which recommended that there should be “a more prescriptive approach to the trading by directors and executive officers in the securities of their company during sensitive periods”. However, little is known about the securities trading policies of companies prior to the introduction of the listing rules requiring such policies. In this paper the authors present the results of a study of the securities trading policies of listed companies prior to the introduction of the ASX listing rules in order to gain insight into (1) the extent to which listed companies voluntarily adopted securities trading policies, and (2) the content of these policies and the types of restrictions contained in them.
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation