Australia's corporate regulator will bill retail contract-for-difference issuers less to fund its supervision in the 2025-26 financial year, even as the total it recovers from industry moves higher. The estimated levy for the subsector that covers most retail CFD and forex brokers is A$128,388 (about US$85,000) per firm, down 23% from the A$166,679 charged a year earlier.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) set out the estimates in its 2025-26 Cost Recovery Implementation Statement, published on Monday. ASIC expects to recover A$400.52 million (about US$264 million) across 52 regulated subsectors, up 18.6% from the A$337.57 million it recovered in 2024-25.

Where the Increase Actually Lands

The headline figure and the CFD number point in opposite directions, and the sector detail explains why. ASIC's costs rose across every sector, but the market infrastructure and intermediaries group, home to brokers, dealers and exchange operators, saw the smallest movement at 1.9%, edging up to A$68.63 million from A$67.38 million.

The larger increases fell elsewhere. The financial advice sector rose 34.5%, insurance 35.4% and the corporate sector 22.9%. ASIC attributed the overall movement to the timing of expenditure and additional funding for its regulatory, supervision and enforcement work.

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The retail OTC derivatives subsector remains an enforcement focus even as its levy shrinks. ASIC has directed seven brokers, including CMC Markets, IG and Pepperstone, to return A$4.3 million to retail clients over leverage breaches. The pool of costs allocated to the subsector fell to A$9.32 million from A$12.11 million, with the number of firms little changed at about 73.

A Lighter Bill, Not a Lighter Touch

Two adjacent categories eased alongside the CFD issuers. The per-staff levy on OTC traders dropped to A$4,150 from A$5,351, and securities dealers face A$31.13 per million dollars of annual turnover, down from A$38.24.

None of that signals a retreat from CFD oversight. ASIC has held retail leverage caps in place since 2021 and extended them for another five years, keeping Australia among the stricter jurisdictions for the product.

That regime has at times run ahead of overseas peers, with one assessment noting the regulator overshot the European Union's own CFD intervention. The levy also carries teeth of its own: ASIC cancelled the licence of broker AIMS after it missed more than a year of industry funding charges.

Estimates, Not Invoices

The figures are a planning guide rather than a bill. ASIC will publish final levies in December 2026 and invoice regulated entities between January and March 2027, so the amounts can move once actual costs are known. The regulator also flagged new derivative reporting obligations that brokers must meet alongside the annual charge.

Last year illustrates why the estimate matters less than the final number. ASIC's 2024-25 retail OTC derivative issuer levy was estimated and later confirmed at A$166,679 per firm across 75 entities, funding A$12.11 million of regulatory cost. For 2025-26, brokers can budget for a lighter charge, provided the December reconciliation holds.