The Australian Securities & Investments Commission has published its Key issues outlook for 2025, setting out the most significant current, ongoing and emerging issues in its remit and signalling where it expects to concentrate surveillance, supervisory attention and enforcement. The outlook highlights a backdrop of increased market volatility, geopolitical change, advances in artificial intelligence, and growing data and cyber risks, alongside shifts in how capital is invested. Priority areas include changing dynamics between public and private markets, with ASIC planning to lead discussion and seek feedback on whether regulatory settings and supervision should adapt and to increase surveillance of private markets by reviewing governance, valuation and liquidity management at a sample of responsible entities of retail private credit funds. In superannuation, ASIC pointed to a shift of at least AUD 750 billion from accumulation to retirement over the next 10 years and a doubling of service-related complaints to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority between 2021 and 2023, and said it will publish findings from a review of member services and take enforcement action where appropriate; it also flagged concerns about unsuitable superannuation advice and is running surveillance on advice used to establish self-managed super funds. Other focus areas include ongoing fraud and scam disruption (including more than 7,300 phishing and investment scam sites taken down since July 2023 and an Investor Alert List adding around 20 entries per week), cyber and operational resilience reviews and investigations, claims handling by general insurers after natural disasters, oversight of ASX’s CHESS replacement with the Reserve Bank of Australia, scrutiny of climate-related financial disclosures and greenwashing as new reporting obligations roll out, audit quality with particular concern about independence and conflicts of interest, and monitoring banks’ and lenders’ financial hardship practices, especially where improvement plans are in place. ASIC expects to publish and share findings from its reviews and indicated it will provide more information through 2025 on cyber security investigations and enforcement activity.
Australian Securities & Investments Commission 2025-01-24
Australian Securities & Investments Commission publishes 2025 key issues outlook with heightened focus on private markets, superannuation outcomes, scams and cyber resilience
The Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) has released its Key Issues Outlook for 2025, highlighting market volatility, geopolitical changes, AI advancements, and rising data and cyber risks. ASIC will focus on public-private market dynamics, superannuation shifts, fraud disruption, cyber resilience, claims handling post-disasters, ASX’s CHESS replacement, climate disclosures, audit quality, and financial hardship practices. ASIC will publish review findings and update on cyber security investigations and enforcement throughout 2025.