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ASIC is seeking feedback on the Insurance Council of Australia’s (ICA) proposed new General Insurance Code of Practice (Code) as it considers whether to approve the Code.

ASIC has the power to approve codes of conduct under section 1101A(1) of the Corporations Act 2001. The ICA submitted the proposed new Code to ASIC for consideration on 22 October 2026. It is the first time the ICA has sought ASIC approval of the Code.

The proposed Code has been drafted following a review by an independent panel as well as recommendations about the current Code made by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics’ Inquiry into Insurers’ Responses to the 2022 Floods.

The ICA says the proposed Code would make Code obligations contractually enforceable through insurers’ contracts with consumers. The proposed Code also includes changes relating to claims handling, support for customers experiencing vulnerability, family violence protections and standards for expert reports.

Address by ASIC Commissioner Alan Kirkland at the Ecstra Financial Wellbeing Summit in Sydney on 10 November 2026.

Key points

• Consumers today have access to more financial information than ever before, however it’s getting harder to know who or what to trust.
• Building financial capability increasingly involves building digital financial literacy – giving people the ability to distinguish between different information sources, separate truth from hype, and understand the strengths and weaknesses of AI tools.
• It’s not about putting more information into the system. It’s about understanding what helps people to make better decisions and giving them trusted places to turn.

Many investors are still not being given the information they need to properly understand the risks, fees and conflicts present in private credit investments as complex structures, opacity and deficient disclosure practices persist, ASIC’s second major surveillance of private credit has found.

Between November 2025 and August 2026, ASIC reviewed 24 wholesale and retail private credit funds responsible for a combined $18 billion in assets under management, as well as a sample of financial advice given to retail investors relating to private credit.

ASIC’s surveillance found that many of the poor fee, disclosure, distribution and conflict-management practices identified in ASIC’s first private credit report, released in November 2025, remain.

The findings, outlined in ASIC’s new report (REP 846), have also led to several regulatory interventions, including six interim stop orders and multiple referrals for further enforcement investigation.

ASIC’s major review of lead generation activity in the financial advice sector has uncovered examples of involvement of unlicensed or unqualified lead generators in the advice process, exposing oversight failures by licensees.

The review, which focused on a small number of Australian financial services (AFS) licensees that were identified as having links to lead generation activities, found that some allowed lead generators to undertake specialist tasks such as fact-finding, assessment of clients’ risk profiles and discussing advice recommendations.

ASIC also identified that some lead generators were using potentially misleading statements, fear-based claims and non-like-for-like performance comparisons to encourage consumers to review their superannuation or switch investments. This pointed to clear gaps in some licensees’ oversight of what lead generators were saying to clients.

ASIC Commissioner Alan Kirkland said the findings in Report 845 Lead generation advice models: Putting consumers and licensees at risk (REP 845) sends a clear warning to advice licensees that using or allowing lead generation services may put their licenses at risk.

ASIC has made interim stop orders preventing Angas Securities Limited (Angas Securities) from offering interests in two managed investment schemes over concerns the funds’ product disclosure statements (PDSs) do not adequately disclose Angas Securities’ financial position and one fund’s exposure to the Bathla Group.

The interim stop orders prevent Angas Securities from offering, issuing, selling, or transferring interests in the Angas Prime Income Fund (ARSN 091 887 400) and the Angas Direct Mortgage Fund (ARSN 151 979 645).

ASIC is concerned that investors in both funds may not have been adequately informed about the financial position of Angas Securities and the risks arising from that position.

ASIC also has concerns about disclosures to investors in the Angas Prime Income Fund relating to its exposure to the collapsed Bathla Group and the risks arising from that exposure.

Speech by ASIC Commissioner Alan Kirkland at the Insurance Council of Australia Annual Conference in Sydney on 6 November 2026.

The Federal Court has ordered small amount lender Sunshine Loans Pty Ltd to pay $5.5 million in civil penalties for charging an illegal fee to thousands of consumers that was prohibited under the National Credit Code.

The penalty follows the Court’s finding that, between July 2016 and November 2020, Sunshine Loans entered into more than 670,000 small amount credit contracts containing an unlawful $35 amendment fee (24-074MR).

Consumers were charged a fee for agreeing with Sunshine Loans to reschedule the date of a loan repayment, even though the consumer was not in default.

The Court found Sunshine Loans, a significant participant in the small amount credit industry, charged consumers the illegal fee more than 12,000 times and received payment more than 8,000 times, collecting almost $300,000 from consumers.

ASIC is seeking feedback on proposals to support the transition to the new foreign financial services provider (FFSP) regime, which starts on 8 April 2027.

ASIC proposes to extend existing transitional relief for FFSPs by six months, provide conditional class relief under the new professional investor exemption, and publish regulatory guidance.

ASIC is also explaining how providers can notify ASIC of the exemptions they intend to rely on under the new regime.

The proposals aim to give industry regulatory certainty and support a smooth transition to the new regime.

The Government’s new FFSP regime aims to improve Australian professional and wholesale investors’ access to global markets by exempting certain providers from the requirement to hold an Australian Financial Services (AFS) licence.

The proposed guidance explains the new regime, its statutory exemptions, eligibility criteria and conditions.

ASIC also proposes conditional class relief for eligible FFSPs whose global operating models may fall outside the new professional investor exemption. Subject to conditions, the relief would allow individuals in Australia to support financial services principally provided offshore by an FFSP to Australian institutional investors.

Organised crime doesn’t stop when drugs, illicit tobacco or other illicit commodities are sold. Criminals then have another problem: what to do with the money.

An alleged transnational money laundering network suspected of laundering more than $123 million for multiple organised crime syndicates shows how criminals can provide financial infrastructure and services to other criminals.

AUSTRAC has supported a Taskforce Avarus investigation into the group(external link), which allegedly converted criminal cash into cryptocurrency and moved funds offshore through shell companies operating as corporate money mules.

Taskforce Avarus is an Australian Federal Police-led, multi-agency initiative targeting criminal networks that launder money in Australia.

It is an example of crime as a service, where specialist criminal networks can provide the infrastructure needed to move, convert and disguise the proceeds generated by other criminal activity.

ASIC has successfully defended the key liability, penalty and disqualification outcomes challenged by iSignthis Ltd (iSignthis), now known as Southern Cross Payments Ltd, and its former director and chief executive officer Nickolas John Karantzis.

The Full Federal Court yesterday largely dismissed the appellants’ appeals and upheld orders made by Justice McEvoy that iSignthis must pay a $10 million penalty for breaching disclosure laws and that Mr Karantzis be disqualified from managing corporations for six years and pay a $1 million penalty (24-132MR, 25-158MR).

The Full Court allowed the appeal on a limited aspect concerning the terms of one declaration made against Mr Karantzis during the liability judgment and ordered that the declaration be amended.