ASIC chairman Greg Medcraft has warned directors that they are responsible for the culture of their companies and says he will take up cases of poor corporate behaviour to make them a boardroom issue.
Mr Medcraft said the Australian Securities and Investments Commission can help protect consumers, investors and the integrity of markets by highlighting examples of poor culture to those at the top of the companies involved.
He told the Thomson Reuters Australian Regulatory Summit in Sydney that company culture started at the top, with the chief executive and the board.
"What the board says, does and most importantly expects, is absolutely critical in setting the tone for the organisation," Mr Medcraft said on Tuesday.
"Board members might be hands off, but I do think they should have their noses in."
Mr Medcraft said it was in companies' interest to promote a healthy culture from a business perspective, as well as a regulatory one.
"Building and maintaining a culture that your customer can believe in is imperative; there are more choices and information available to customers now than there has ever been before," Mr Medcraft said.
"Firms that do not have a good culture risk losing their customers to firms that do."
Mr Medcraft did not name any sector in particular, although the major banks have been a talking point through the general election campaign, with the Labor opposition calling for a Royal Commission into them if it is elected.
