Corporate responsibility

QTC’s Code of Conduct provides employees with a set of values to assist them with carrying out their responsibilities in an ethical manner. The values underlying the Code of Conduct are:

• integrity and impartiality
• promoting the public good
• commitment to the system of government, and
• accountability and transparency.

All QTC employees are required to comply with the Code of Conduct.

As QTC is a member of the Australian Financial Markets Association (AFMA), QTC employees are also required to adhere to the AFMA Code of Conduct, so far as relevant to QTC. The AFMA Code of Conduct establishes the minimum standards of behaviour expected from market participants in the over-the-counter Australian financial markets (being a market for trading financial products directly between two parties, as opposed to trading on an established exchange).

QTC prides itself on being an organisation with ethics and integrity. Being such an organisation helps QTC achieve its corporate goals and assists in servicing client needs. QTC has long recognised the importance of compliance as a driver for ethics and good corporate governance.

To demonstrate its commitment to ethics and compliance, QTC’s Board has endorsed a formal policy stating that QTC is committed to observing high standards of integrity and fair dealing in the conduct of its business and to acting with due care, diligence and skill. To those ends, all employees are required to comply with the letter and spirit of all relevant laws and regulations, industry standards, relevant government policies and QTC’s own policies and procedures.

QTC has a compliance program that aims to:

• assist it to meet its strategic and corporate objectives
• achieve compliance with relevant external laws and internal policies and procedures
• maintain and enhance a culture of compliance so that QTC and its employees at all times act with honesty, integrity and probity
• embed and operationalise compliance as an integrated part of its business
• assist in maintaining QTC as an ethical organisation
• establish responsibility and accountability for compliance
• seek innovative solutions to compliance challenges and work to achieve continuous improvement in the way in which QTC undertakes compliance, and
• recognise and work to achieve and maintain good corporate citizenship, which comes from good compliance practices.

The compliance program includes regular targeted training for QTC employees about relevant issues, including equal opportunity, workplace health and safety, and competition and consumer law.