Quite honestly it's an investigation into everything ISX does and has done. If I could break down the issues ASIC and ASX are investigating I would say the first query was very surface level.
1. Have you disclosed everything to the market?
(Answer Yes)2. Show us a breakdown of your revenue figures, and what industries they came from
(Provided, some varied crypto figures)3. Did you participate in any dodgy crypto transactions?
(Not involved with ICO - General crypto consistent with market over the periods)4. What was your relationship with KAB
(Facilitated banking)I believe the first query was answered very satisfactorily and no irregularities were detected, however maybe some questions were still left unanswered.
In response, the ASX has opted to dig even deeper, a new line of questioning and a deeper dive to see if there is a "Smoking gun". I don't believe the first response did reveal anything unusual, so this is their attempt at pulling everything apart and rebuilding from the ground up.
This query is looking at these central issues:
- Was what you disclosed to the market accurate and fair? (Yes, although this evolved as business practices became more robust)
- Given you had a relationships with KAB, how did that affect operations? Did you benefit from an operational perspective from KAB? (Yes we used them as a depository, but no benefit was derived, in fact it created more issues and was dealt with accordingly)
- Performance shares - provide more detail on sources of revenue, industry and geography derived from (Yes - provided, looks ok, but we can never be 100% sure unless we see the actual invoices - which is impossible)
- How do you determine who you provide services for, do you have a due diligence framework in place? (Yes, and this is one of the big ones I think they are looking at. They have provided a framework and demonstrated they have ceased contracts/partnerships if they think their operations could be compromised.
So in summary, I think the answers have been answered quite well, I genuinely see no cause for concern at the moment. It's difficult to say with 100% certainty that the answers are accurate and honest, we can only accept that at face value and on the strength of auditing (which is a bit weak broadly in my opinion).
The major points I take out of this new response are:
- ISX has clear policies and procedures for everything.
- As a team they are dynamic and evolving to the to environment and regulation.
- When you are dealing with KYC, you have to accept there will be a lot of bad actors, a lot of individuals doing illegal things, ISX I believe have shown great aptitude with handling this so far.
- Performance shares and revenues have been closely scrutinised, and they are a major point of investigation for the ASX and ASIC. It's hard to be 100% comfortable with everything and at some point you have to accept it as face value.
- Operating in this space are not a cake walk, you need to have legal expertise or legal counsel. You make a slip, regulators will be all over you
