Responsible lending training

AUSTRAC has published new reforms guidance. This marks another important step in helping you prepare for the new anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) laws coming into effect.

ASIC is concerned that many Australians may not have the information they need to make confident and informed decisions about retirement after a review identified a lack of urgency in improving retirement communications among superannuation trustees collectively responsible for millions of members.

Commissioner Alan Kirkland delivered a keynote address at Credit Law 2025 on 14 October.

Here are the highlights of Alan’s address:

• ASIC’s role is to ensure consumer credit protections are universally applied and enjoyed. That’s why ongoing work to examine compliance across the sector continues to be a priority.
• Key areas of focus include mortgage brokers, motor vehicle finance, financial hardship, debt management, credit repair and debt collection.
• ASIC continues to take action across the spectrum, wherever we see credit-related misconduct. Entities whose conduct causes harm to consumers – or harm to their financial futures – should expect ASIC to take an active interest.

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has released its Innovate Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) for the period October 2025 to September 2027. This is APRA’s second Innovate RAP and third RAP since 2017.

The latest Reconciliation Action Plan builds on APRA’s previous commitments and focuses on four key themes:

• Creating a working environment that increasingly attracts, retains and develops Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees.
• Broadening the impact of our RAP activities throughout APRA’s five offices across Australia and forming local cultural connections.
• Developing opportunities for more APRA employees to engage personally with First Nations people and cultures, growing their cultural awareness and contributing to reconciliation more directly in the broader Australian community.
• Further exploring APRA’s specific role to promote reconciliation within its sphere of influence – in partnership with other financial regulators – in a way that aligns with APRA’s mandate.

Rebuilding after the storm
Commissioner Alan Kirkland delivered remarks at the Insurance Council of Australia Annual Conference in Sydney on 10 October.

Here are the highlights of Alan’s remarks:

• The insurance industry has an enormous task ahead to rebuild trust with the Australian community following a challenging period of claims handling failures.
• The development of a new General Insurance Code of Practice that will be enforceable by contract is an important step towards rebuilding trust. However, unless the provisions themselves improve overall levels of consumer protection, it will be a step backwards.
• Our challenge to industry over the next year is to commit to a code that will make a real difference to your customers. Simple cannot be code for stripped out.

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has published remarks delivered by Member Suzanne Smith to the 2025 Insurance Council of Australia conference in Sydney.

Under the headline “From risk to resilience: Futureproofing Australia’s insurance sector” Ms Smith addressed how the sector can prepare itself by focusing on resilience, innovation, and leadership in a world of rising risks such as climate change, cyber threats, and geopolitical instability.

She emphasised the importance of getting the basics right – strong risk management, operational resilience, and accountability – while encouraging insurers to embrace innovation and transparent customer engagement. She concluded that effective leadership and a healthy risk culture are essential for building trust and ensuring the industry remains robust and prepared for future challenges.

ASIC is calling on financial services entities to strengthen governance and risk management after a review found weaknesses in the use of offshore service providers exposing consumers and investors to potential harm.

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has published Chair John Lonsdale’s Opening Statement to the Senate Economics Legislation Committee.

On 9 October, the Government introduced Payday Super legislation into Parliament to take effect 1 July 2026. This measure is not yet law.

Tax professionals should be aware of how the proposed Payday Super reform may affect employer clients.

In its latest update on Australia’s public and private markets, ASIC has called on industry bodies to lift their standards across Australia’s private credit sector following expert observations on better and poorer practices.

ASIC has made an interim stop order against the RELI Capital Mortgage Fund (Fund), a registered managed investment scheme operated by RELI Capital Limited (RELI Capital) to protect consumers and retail investors from acquiring a product that may not be suitable for their financial objectives, situation or needs.

ASIC’s action follows concerns that the target market in the Target Market Determination (TMD) for the Fund:

• the target market potentially includes investors who intend to hold the Fund as a ‘Core Component’ (25-75%) of their portfolio
• the Fund’s risk level ‘Risk level 3 (Low to Medium)” is an incomplete measure of the Fund’s risk
• the TMD states that the Fund is suitable for investors seeking capital preservation, and
• the TMD specifies that no distribution conditions are necessary for the Fund.

ASIC has announced an important step in facilitating growth and innovation in the digital assets and payments sectors.

ASIC has granted class relief for intermediaries engaging in the secondary distribution of a stablecoin issued by an Australian financial services (AFS) licensed issuer.

As and when more issuers of eligible stablecoins obtain an AFS licence, ASIC will consider extending the above relief to intermediaries distributing those stablecoins.

ASIC is committed to supporting responsible innovation in the rapidly evolving digital assets space, while ensuring important consumer protections are in place by having eligible stablecoins issued under an AFS licence.

APRA and ASIC hosted a joint Superannuation CEO Roundtable on 27 August 2025, attended by 10 superannuation trustee Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) that manage the majority of superannuation platform products.

ASIC has made interim stop orders against the 12 Month Term Account and 2 Year Account products offered under the La Trobe Australian Credit Fund (Fund), a registered managed investment scheme operated by La Trobe Financial Asset Management Limited (La Trobe) due to deficiencies in the target market determination (TMD) for both products.

Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ) has admitted to engaging in unconscionable conduct in services it provided to the Australian Government, incorrectly reporting its bond trading data to the Australian Government by overstating the volumes by tens of billions of dollars and to widespread misconduct across products and services impacting nearly 65,000 customers.

ASIC and ANZ will ask the Federal Court to impose penalties of $240 million in relation to four separate proceedings spanning misconduct across ANZ’s Institutional and Retail divisions.

The misconduct occurred over many years and was marked by ANZ’s significant failure to manage non-financial risk across the bank.

Compliance in a complex world

Key points

• ASIC’s latest corporate plan reflects how the agency is adapting to a complex and uncertain world and outlines its five strategic priorities.
• One of those priorities is to support better member services and retirement outcomes and ASIC will continue its work to protect Australians’ retirement savings.
• ASIC’s strategic priority to drive integrity and transparency across Australia’s capital markets includes its work on a roadmap for public and private markets. Expect to hear more from ASIC in the next three months.

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has published remarks delivered to FINSIA’s The Regulators event by Member Therese McCarthy Hockey.

In short, prepared comments ahead of a panel discussion, Ms McCarthy Hockey spoke about the influence of prudential safety, productivity and proportionality on APRA’s efforts to strike the right regulatory balance.

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has published remarks delivered to FINSIA’s The Regulators event by Assistant Governor, Brad Jones.

The Federal Court has delivered judgment in ASIC’s proceedings against Money3 Loans Pty Ltd (Money3), a car finance provider that ASIC alleged breached responsible lending laws when it entered into five loans with borrowers who were largely or solely reliant on Centrelink payments.

The Court found Money3 failed to make reasonable inquiries about or verify each borrower’s living expenses based on bank statement transaction data, and in one instance failed to make reasonable inquiries about a borrower’s requirements and objectives. However, it rejected ASIC’s allegations that the car finance provider failed to assess whether the loan contracts were unsuitable for borrowers and entered them into unsuitable loans.

The Court also rejected ASIC’s claims that Money3 failed to take reasonable steps to ensure its representatives complied with credit legislation or that its representatives were not adequately trained and competent.

ASIC Chair Joe Longo said, ‘ASIC took this case after receiving numerous complaints, including from consumer advocates. We were concerned that consumers on social security payments were entering into potentially unsuitable loans. We are currently considering the judgment.

‘Responsible lending laws exist to ensure that credit providers do not enter consumers into loans that will cause them detriment in the long run. These laws are an important part of Australia’s consumer protection framework. Even though we may not ultimately be successful in every case we run, it is important ASIC take action to enforce the law where it is concerned a breach has occurred.’

ASIC and APRA have published notes from two Superannuation CEO Roundtables held on 23 and 30 July 2025.

The roundtables were attended by 16 superannuation CEO representatives from a broad cross-section of the industry.

The themes for discussion were governance and risk oversight, and expenditure practices.