Australia's financial watchdog has wrapped up the most lucrative enforcement period in its history, extracting nearly $350 million in court-ordered civil penalties from some of the country's biggest financial institutions in the second half of last year, while also clawing back more than half a billion dollars for ordinary Australians caught up in misconduct schemes.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC ) said this week it secured $349.8 million in civil penalties between July and December 2025, the highest six-monthly total since the agency's founding.
That figure comes alongside $583 million in refunds and compensation payments flowing back to consumers and investors, a combined outcome that Chairman Joe Longo called evidence of a regulator that has fundamentally changed how it operates.
"Today, ASIC is one of the most active law enforcement agencies in the country," Longo said. "We are taking more cases to court, achieving record penalties, and protecting consumers."
ANZ Pays the Biggest Price
No single outcome defined the period more than the action against ANZ. In December, the Federal Court ordered Australia and New Zealand Banking Group to pay $250 million in combined penalties - the largest amount ASIC has ever secured against one entity - for a pattern of misconduct that stretched from bond market manipulation to charging fees to the accounts of dead customers.
Deputy Chairwoman Sarah Court didn't soften her message. "This outcome sends a clear message to ANZ that it needs to do better by its customers and to all banks that the cost of breaking the law is not an acceptable cost of doing business."
ANZ now faces 11 civil penalty proceedings brought by ASIC since 2016. Cbus, NAB, and RAMS Financial Group also faced significant penalties during the period - $23.5 million, $15.5 million, and $20 million, respectively - for failures ranging from botched death benefit payments to home loan compliance gaps.
“Our Work Continues”
The enforcement ramp-up is part of a multi-year pattern. ASIC secured over $120 million in court-ordered penalties during the full 2024-25 fiscal year and has been steadily increasing the volume and scale of its actions.
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The regulator granted 290 new Australian Financial Services licences in FY25 while pulling back 215 others - a pattern that reflects a regulator tightening who gets to operate in the market, not just punishing those who already are.
Longo acknowledged that the pace won't ease off. "While 2025 was a significant year, our work continues in intensity in the year ahead."
Shield and First Guardian: $420 Million and Counting
Beyond the headline bank penalties, ASIC's two most complex ongoing investigations - into the collapsed Shield Master Fund and First Guardian Master Fund - produced some of the period's most consequential outcomes for ordinary investors.
Both schemes funnelled Australians' superannuation savings into managed investment products that subsequently unravelled. By December, ASIC had secured more than $420 million in compensation commitments for around 4,000 investors. Macquarie admitted to contraventions of the Corporations Act and committed to paying $321 million to Shield investors, while Netwealth agreed to pay over $100 million to more than 1,000 First Guardian investors.
FinanceMagnates.com previously reported on the early stages of these collapses in June 2025, when ASIC first moved to freeze assets across 31 connected entities as some 600 Australians stood to lose $160 million in retirement savings.
Corporate Complaints Surge
A separate dataset released Wednesday adds another dimension to the picture. Between July and December 2025, ASIC received 9,686 reports of misconduct, raising 13,036 individual issues, a 28% jump from the first half of the year. The agency attributed part of that increase to a redesigned reporting portal launched in June that made lodging complaints easier.
Corporate governance concerns accounted for 40% of all issues raised - up from 3,819 in the previous period to 5,217 - driven by failures to hand company records to liquidators, fraud allegations, and insolvency matters. Financial services and retail investor issues made up another 44%.
Deputy Chairwoman Court said the data reinforces where ASIC plans to focus. "They underscore [ASIC's enforcement priorities], which include tackling governance and directors' duties failures, reaffirming that stronger governance remains a top priority for ASIC."
Low-Income Customers Get $161 Million Back
Separately, ASIC's "Better and Beyond" review of bank fee practices produced another significant consumer outcome. Twenty-one banks agreed to refund $161 million to customers who had been stuck in high-fee accounts - a group disproportionately made up of low-income earners. The Commonwealth Bank alone committed to returning $68 million in December.
Commissioner Alan Kirkland acknowledged progress but struck a cautious note: "Our intervention has forced many banks to take action, but more needs to be done to ensure financially vulnerable consumers are not put in this position again."
Several banks also shifted more than one million customers into low-fee accounts, a change ASIC estimates will save them a combined $50 million annually.
A 14-Year Prison Sentence Sends a Message
On the criminal side, the period's most striking outcome was a 14-year prison sentence handed to West Australian fraudster Chris Marco by the Supreme Court of Western Australia - pending appeal, the longest custodial sentence ever imposed in connection with an ASIC criminal investigation. The regulator recorded 17 criminal convictions against individuals across the period, a 31% increase from the prior six months.
Across all enforcement categories, ASIC launched 123 new investigations, completed 518 surveillances, filed 23 new civil proceedings, and commenced 11 new criminal prosecutions. Infringement notice penalties totalled $6.9 million.
