The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has released guidelines for public companies and crowd-funding platform operators to support the use of its new crowd-sourced funding regime, which commences operations on 29 September.

Regulatory Guide 261, entitled "Crowd-sourced funding: Guide for public companies," is there to help companies that want to raise funds through crowdsourcing to understand and comply with their obligations in the new regime, particularly as many of these companies have no experience in making public offers of their shares. ASIC has also published a template offer document for their use.

Regulatory Guide 262, entitled "Crowd-sourced funding: Guide for intermediaries," is there to help crowdfunding platform operators or 'intermediaries' who want to provide crowd-funding services. There are unique "gatekeeper obligations" for operating platforms for such offers.