ASIC is repeating its warning to Australians to make informed investment decisions after new data revealed a sharp rise in the number of complaints affecting retail investors.
Newly released figures highlight ASIC received 7,561 reports of misconduct from 1 January 2025 to 30 June 2025, raising 11,060 issues. Of this, 5,909 reported issues fell into the financial services and retail investor category, which includes credit issues, license obligations, and other conduct related to advice, insurance, and misleading and deceptive or unconscionable behaviour.
ASIC Chair Joe Longo said, ‘The data underscores why many of ASIC’s enforcement priorities focus on consumer and retail investor protection.
‘This data shows exactly why we regularly issue consumer warnings and update our advice through Moneysmart to help empower consumers and protect them.
‘Just last month we issued an urgent warning to people to be on red-alert for high-pressure sales tactics, click bait advertising and promises of unrealistic returns, which encourage people to switch superannuation into risky investments.
‘This data helps us understand the trends in issues affecting Australians and informs how we prioritise our resources.’
Mr Longo said the new half-yearly data publication would provide further transparency about the scale of issues ASIC tries to tackle in the financial services system.
‘Every report we receive is reviewed and considered. Although ASIC is not a complaints resolution body, we use reports of misconduct to inform our surveillance activities and investigations that together drive our priorities to deliver compliance, enforcement and consumer outcomes.
The half-yearly reports can be viewed on the Reports of misconduct data webpage.
ASIC also today released its latest six-monthly Enforcement and Regulatory update, which highlighted its high impact initiatives for the period 1 January 2025 – 30 June 2025 including:
- ASIC’s first discussion paper Australia’s evolving capital markets: A discussion paper on the dynamics between public and private markets
- ASIC’s Inquiry into the ASX group, led by an expert panel focusing on governance, capability and risk management frameworks and practices across the group
- ASIC’s action against multiple Macquarie Group entities after significant and repeated compliance failures
- a $27 million penalty against AustralianSuper for its failure to merge multiple member accounts of more than 90,000 members over a 10-year period, and
- ASIC’s action against Choosi for allegedly making false representations to customers, claiming it compared products from a range of funeral and life insurers.
