ASIC’s 2026 Crackdown: What Licensees Need to Know Now

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) released its 2026 enforcement priorities in November last year. Some of the focus areas are continuing areas that ASIC has previously identified as enforcement priorities for 2025, and others are new when compared to the same list. By publishing its enforcement priorities each year, ASIC sends a clear message to the industry about the industries, and/or issues within the industry, that ASIC will be paying particular attention to.

In this article, we explain what ASIC’s enforcement priorities means for you in practice and how you can prepare for heightened regulatory activity in these areas.

New enforcement priorities for 2026

Misleading pricing practices impacting cost of living for Australians

First up on ASIC’s stated enforcement priorities list is “misleading pricing practices that impact cost of living for Australians”. ASIC has said that its intention is to “…zero in on misleading pricing practices in the financial services sector, particularly those that make everyday costs harder for Australians.” This priority is expected to affect a wide range of financial services sectors.

What are misleading pricing practices?

A misleading pricing practice is a claim or representation that is likely to give a consumer a false impression about the price, value or quality of goods or services being offered. For example, this may include unclear discounting structures, hidden fees or statements that mispresent how pricing discounts apply.

A recent example is the enforcement action involving RACQ Insurance Limited (RACQ). On 30 December 2023, the Federal Court of Australia found that RACQ had engaged in conduct that was liable to mislead the public. Between 23 February 2017 to 7 March 2022, RACQ’s product disclosure statements for four insurance policies stated that all applicable customer discounts would apply to the entire premium. In reality, however, discounts were not applied to the optional benefits portion of the premium. As a result, approximately 458,746 customers were deprived of a total of around $86,476,399 in discounts. The Court subsequently ordered RACQ to pay a penalty of $10 million for these contraventions.

Poor private credit practices

Between October 2024 to August 2025, ASIC undertook a surveillance review of 28 private credit funds (PCFs), including listed and unlisted and both retail/wholesale funds, and published the findings from their review in Report 820 (REP 820).

In announcing ASIC’s 2026 enforcement priorities, ASIC Deputy Chair Sarah Court emphasised that, to support confident and informed participation, investor protection, and market integrity, “[ASIC] won’t hesitate to take enforcement action to stamp out misconduct in the sector”. While private credit done well can play a valuable role in the Australia’s financial ecosystem, REP 820, read alongside the 2025 Private Credit in Australia Report, highlights that current market practices remain “inconsistent and not always executed well.

For more information, see our March featured T-REX article on understanding the structural divide in private credit regulation and how it can help inform more robust private credit practices.

Financial reporting misconduct including failure to lodge financial reports

Large proprietary companies are required to prepare and lodge their financial reports and director’s reports within four months after the end of the financial year, unless ASIC has granted relief. Historically, certain “grandfathered companies” (i.e. those that had continuously met the definition of an “exempt proprietary company” since 30 June 1994, were classified as large on 9 December 1995, and had their reports audited annually), were exempt. This exemption, however, was removed in 2022.

Following its removal, ASIC identified widespread non-compliance among previously grandfathered companies. For the 2024 and 2025 financial years, 755 out of 1,166 such companies failed to lodge their required financial reports. In response, ASIC issued infringement notices to 12 large proprietary companies for allegedly failing to lodge their audited 2024 financial year reports on time, resulting in more than $2.2 million penalties.

Against this backdrop, ASIC has stated it will be stepping up enforcement action against financial reporting misconduct. ASIC Deputy Chair Sarah Court emphasised that “[r]eliable financial information remains more important than ever, particularly as entities with unlisted assets, such as super funds and private credit funds, play a bigger role in the economy.”

Continuing the work to hold those responsible to account for the collapse of the Shield and First Guardian Master Funds

ASIC’s investigation into the collapse of the Shield Master Fund and First Guardian Master Fund remains one of its largest and most complex investigations in recent memory.

While ASIC’s initial focus centred on returning available money to investors, the priority has now shifted toward accountability for the several failures that ASIC has identified. Enforcement activity has escalated, with 12 cases underway against 21 defendants arising from ASIC’s investigations.

Developments in these cases are expected to influence regulatory expectations surrounding the oversight and governance of managed investment schemes as well as renewing ASIC’s interest in the financial planning industry. This comes after Treasury’s Consultation Paper: Enhancing oversight and governance of managed investment schemes, which intended to explore ways on how the operation managed investment schemes can be strengthened and how governance standards can be improved, including better tracking of superannuation switching.

Claims and complaint handling failures by insurers

In June and July 2022, ASIC undertook a review in collaboration with the Insurance Council of Australia and six major insurers to better understand consumer experience with home insurance claims under the new regime. The review assessed how insurers’ claims handling practices aligned with their expanded regulatory obligations. The findings, published in Report 768 (Navigating the storm: ASIC’s review of home insurance claims), revealed that all participating insurers had room to improve in several key area, including better:

• communications to consumers about decisions, delays and complications;
• project management and oversight of third parties;
• handling of complaints and expression of dissatisfaction;
• identification and treatment of vulnerable consumers; and
• resourcing of claims handling and dispute resolution.

Overall, ASIC’s findings make clear that claims handling is firmly treated as a core regulated activity, with deficiencies in communication, complaint management, oversight of third parties, or support for vulnerable consumers now viewed as systemic compliance risks rather than service issues. Insurers are therefore expected to proactively review, strengthen and properly resource their claims handling frameworks, as failures in this area carry heightened enforcement activity and regulatory scrutiny.

Continuing enforcement priorities for 2026

Alongside its new areas of focus, ASIC will continue to pursue several longstanding enforcement priorities throughout 2026. These include:

1. Strengthening investigation and prosecution of insider trading conduct – ASIC’s enforcement activity in this area continues to grow following the establishment of a dedicated insider trading team in September 2024, which achieved its first outcome in January 2026 when former investment manager Rodney Forrest was sentenced to six years imprisonment for insider trading and procuring others to trade.
2. Misconduct exploiting consumers facing financial difficulty including predatory credit practices – In a keynote address at Credit Law 2025, ASIC Commissioner Alan Kirkland reinforced that ASIC’s role is to ensure that core consumer protections are universally applied across the credit market. More specifically, this enforcement priority is centred on lender responses to financial hardship, and extends to mortgage brokers, motor vehicle finance, debt management and credit repair, and debt collection.
3. Unlawful practices seeking to evade small business creditors – ASIC will continue its crackdown on unlawful practices designed to evade debts owed to small business creditors. This includes “phoenixing”‑type behaviour, sham restructures and misuse of corporate structures to escape payment obligations.
4. Holding super trustees to account for member services failure – This priority has been reinforced by ASIC’s civil penalty proceedings against Mercer Superannuation (Australia) Limited, alleging that the fund failed to report investigations into serious member services issues, including incorrect insurance premium refunds for deceased members.
5. Auditor misconduct – ASIC continues to focus on audit quality and audit independence following the publication of Report 817 Building trust: Auditor compliance with independence and conflict of interest obligations in October 2025, which revealed that many auditors were unable to effectively demonstrate compliance with their independence requirements and conflict of interest obligations.

How will the rest of the year unfold?

ASIC’s enforcement activity in 2026 is expected to intensify as the regulator continues to safeguard Australia’s financial system. This is likely to translate into more targeted surveillance, faster escalation from supervisory action to formal enforcement, and a lower tolerance for repeat or systemic compliance failures across ASIC’s continuing 2025 focus areas.

Moreover, ASIC’s published priorities should be treated as a roadmap rather than a warning after the fact. For many licensees, 2026 will not be about responding to enforcement action when it arises, but about ensuring they are not the next test case used by ASIC to reinforce regulatory expectations across the market.

TIP: As ASIC has introduced new enforcement priorities, it will likely become more active in these areas and will continue to maintain its regulatory oversight and enforcement activity in relation to its existing priorities. This may mean that licensees or their representatives receive a notice from ASIC asking for certain information or production of documents as it investigates these matters within the financial services industry.

If you would like support in either assessing your compliance framework or if you received a notice from ASIC as part of ASIC’s increased activity, our team is here to help you.

Have any further questions?

Author: Glenjon Aligiannis (Senior Associate) and Luka Razlog (Graduate)