Australia’s corporate and financial services regulator, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, will increase its scrutiny of private markets throughout the period of its latest 2024-28 five-year plan.

Announcing its latest five-year plan Thursday, ASIC added a new ‘strategic priority’ to its areas of focus that will see it “drive consistency and transparency across markets and products”.

Included within that will be a focus on “outcomes in public and private markets”, it said, the first time that private markets have been explicitly mentioned in one of its strategic priorities.

ASIC chair Joe Longo said in a statement that the new strategic priority was motivated by private markets’ opacity and the fact they may present systemic risks to broader markets, particularly as the size of Australian investors’ exposure to these types of assets grows.

“The integrity of our markets is fundamental to maintaining trust in Australia’s financial system, which is core to ASIC’s remit,” he said.

“Trust in the financial system and markets means greater confidence, which means more investment. That has direct benefits for the jobs and opportunities of Australians.

“While Australia’s private markets are dwarfed in size by our listed equity markets, their opacity presents an outsized risk to market integrity, particularly as more investors become exposed.

“The addition of a new strategic priority aimed at driving consistency and transparency across markets and products puts all market participants on notice.”

ASIC is a regulatory body that monitors and promotes market integrity, and is funded by the Australian federal government. The bulk of its activity is in enforcement and compliance, but it also carries out supervision and surveillance activities, alongside providing guidance to the industry and licensing financial market participants.

Longo has said repeatedly at various public appearances over the past several months that private markets would be an increased area of focus for the regulator.

Its other four strategic priorities for the coming five-year period are: to improve consumer outcomes; to address financial system climate change risk; to better retirement outcomes and member services; and to advance digital and data resilience and safety.

ASIC recently underwent a restructure under Longo, who took over as chair in 2021. The restructure was designed to streamline operations and lead to a more unified approach to enforcement across financial services and markets.

A report in the Australian Financial Review published Thursday suggested the upcoming sale of AirTrunk, the data centre platform owned by Macquarie Asset Management and PSP Investments that is expected to fetch as much as A$20 billion ($13.5 billion; €12.1 billion), would be examined closely as part of the new ASIC drive.

ASIC had not responded to a request to comment prior to publication.