ASIC announces 2026 enforcement priorities: focus on private credit and market integrity

The new priorities for the incoming year that were not previously stated to be a focus of ASIC include:

• misleading pricing practices impacting cost of living for Australians;
• poor private credit practices;
• financial reporting misconduct including failure to lodge financial reports;
• claims and complaint handling failures by insurers; and
• continuing its work to hold those responsible to account for the collapse of the Shield and First Guardian Master Funds.

ASIC's focus on poor private credit practices comes as no surprise, given its extensive surveillance activity in this sector over the past 12 months. In its recent report Private credit surveillance: retail and wholesale funds, ASIC made it clear it saw many shortcomings in the private credit sector and that it intended to take enforcement action to eliminate misconduct. Specifically, ASIC has stated in 2026 its focus in the private credit market will include:

• fees, margin structures and conflict-of-interest management in wholesale private credit funds, including those with a focus on real estate lending; and
• distribution of private credit funds to retail clients through direct and advised channels.

ASIC has also flagged it will seek to tackle areas of identified poorer practices within wholesale private credit funds by updating and revising its regulatory guidance to make it more plainly applicable to wholesale funds. This is among a background of ASIC outlining in its recent report, Advancing Australia's evolving capital markets: Discussion paper response, its desire to see increased regulation of the wholesale funds sector.

You can read more about ASIC's focus and proposed changes in our latest articles:

• Shifting dynamics in Australia's capital markets: private credit and public market trends;
• ASIC proposes increased regulation of wholesale funds; and
• Private credit funds under scrutiny: lessons learned from interim stop orders.

In 2026, it appears ASIC is moving its focus away from the following 2025 enforcement areas:

• unscrupulous property investment schemes;
• failures by insurers to deal fairly and in good faith with customers;
• licensee failures to have adequate cyber-security protections;
• greenwashing and misleading conduct involving ESG claims; and
• used car finance sold to vulnerable consumers by finance providers.

In the consumer credit space, ASIC is shifting its focus slightly away from business models designed to avoid consumer credit protections and debt management and collection misconduct, towards misconduct exploiting consumers facing financial difficulty, such as predatory credit practices and unlawful practices seeking to evade small business creditors. 

Further, in the superannuation sector, following its previous focus on addressing misconduct that exploits superannuation savings, ASIC’s 2026 enforcement activities will focus on holding super trustees accountable for member services failures. 

In addition to ASIC’s new priorities for 2026, ASIC’s enduring priorities remain unchanged, including misconduct impacting First Nations and vulnerable consumers, safeguarding market integrity, addressing systemic failures and promoting a fair, robust, and efficient financial system for all Australians.