ASIC reveals top 10 enforcement priorities for 2026

On Thursday (13 November), financial regulator ASIC revealed its top ten enforcement priorities for 2026.

ASIC deputy chair Sarah Court said the regulator’s 2026 priorities reflected emerging risks, including those in private credit, and a need to address issues that worsened cost-of-living issues for Australians.

“ASIC will zero in on misleading pricing practices in the financial services sector, particularly those that make everyday costs harder for Australians,” Court said.

“Reliable 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. In 2026, we will step up enforcement action against financial reporting misconduct.”

ASIC’s new enforcement priorities included misleading pricing practices, poor private credit practices and claims and complaint mishandling by insurers. Alongside these, the regulator said it would continue its focus on auditor misconduct, predatory credit practices and unlawful practices seeking to evade small business creditors.

“Our 2026 enforcement priorities reflect emerging risks like those in private credit, as well as the challenges Australians face while contending with higher living costs,” Court said.

“‘In line with our increased surveillance across private credit, we won’t hesitate to take enforcement action to stamp out misconduct in the sector so we can support confident and informed participation, investor protection and market integrity.”

ASIC also reflected on its 2025 successes, including strengthened enforcement action to uphold the integrity of Australia’s financial markets.

“We’re doing more investigations, taking more matters to court and securing record penalties,” Court said.

“In the last 12 months, we’ve doubled the number of new investigations and nearly doubled the number of new matters filed in court.”

These included a proposed $240 million in combined penalties against ANZ, which would be the largest penalties ASIC had ever levelled against a single entity, if successful in court. The regulator also secured a 14-year prison sentence for West Australian fraudster Chris Marco, the highest sentence imposed from an ASIC criminal investigation.

The regulator also filed proceedings against Macquarie and accepted a court-enforceable undertaking to repay $320 million to affected Shield Master Fund investors.

ASIC added that the collapse of Shield and First Guardian Master Funds had been one of its “largest and most complex cases,” and that it would be elevated to a “new, dedicated” priority in 2026. More than 40 people continued to investigate these cases, and the regulator launched three fresh lawsuits relating to the matter on Thursday.

“We have been focused on returning available money to investors and the next stage is holding those responsible to account for the Shield and First Guardian collapses,” Court said.

The regulator’s full list of 2026 priorities included:

1. Misleading pricing practices impacting cost of living for Australians
2. Poor private credit practices
3. Financial reporting misconduct including failure to lodge financial reports
4. Misconduct exploiting consumers facing financial difficulty including predatory credit practices
5. Continuing our work to hold those responsible to account for the collapse of the Shield and First Guardian Master Funds
6. Claims and complaint handling failures by insurers
7. Unlawful practices seeking to evade small business creditors
8. Holding super trustees to account for member services failures
9. Strengthening investigation and prosecution of insider trading conduct
10. Auditor misconduct