The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) declared its 2025 enforcement priorities in November. ASIC’s enforcement priorities shift slightly year-on-year to reflect emerging risks and economic factors. The common theme is the increase in director duties and the governance obligations of company directors.
2025 enforcement priorities
- Misconduct exploiting superannuation savings
- Unscrupulous property investment schemes
- Failures by insurers to deal fairly with customers
- Strengthening investigation and prosecution of insider trading
- Exploitation of business models to avoid customer credit protections
- Misconduct impacting small businesses and creditors
- Debt management and collection misconduct
- Licensee failures regarding cyber-security
- Greenwashing and misleading conduct involving ESG claims
- Member services failures regarding superannuation
- Auditor misconduct
- Used car finance sold to vulnerable consumers by finance providers
Enduring priorities
Along with its 2025 priorities, ASIC has also outlined a list of enduring priorities that continue to present challenges from previous years:
- Misconduct damaging market integrity including insider trading, continuous disclosure breaches and market manipulation
- Misconduct impacting First Nations people
- Misconduct involving a high risk of significant consumer harm, particularly conduct targeting financially vulnerable consumers
- Systemic compliance failures by large financial institutions resulting in widespread consumer harm
- New or emerging conduct risks within the financial system
- Governance and directors’ duties failures
Key takeaways
In conjunction with increased ATO scrutiny, it’s clear that governing financial bodies are reinforcing compliance after a relatively lax period during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2024, ASIC increased new investigations by 25% and new civil proceedings by 23%.
These cautions from ASIC and the ATO bolster the need for strict compliance for both businesses and individuals, with severe penalties on the line for those found guilty or negligent.
If you’re concerned about your compliance requirements, Optima Partners can help you understand your obligations and implement corporate governance procedures which will help mitigate your risk.
