The Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) renewed its warning to Australian financial services (AFS) licensees and their authorised relevant providers to immediately review and correct information on the Financial Advisers Register ahead of the 1 January 2026 deadline for meeting the qualifications standard. A second ASIC spot check focusing on qualifications data found ongoing errors and inconsistencies that affect the reliability of reported progress. As of 28 May 2025, AFS licensees had notified ASIC that 6,426 of 15,610 relevant providers hold an approved degree or qualification and 4,580 are relying on the experienced provider pathway, while 4,604 were recorded as not yet meeting the standard. ASIC added that 1,844 of those 4,604 may be eligible for the experienced provider pathway but their licensees have not yet notified ASIC. Errors identified included declarations of reliance on the experienced provider pathway where eligibility was unclear, qualifications marked as counting toward the standard when courses were incomplete or not approved, and inaccuracies in authorisation history. ASIC reminded licensees that knowingly providing false or misleading information, failing to take reasonable steps to ensure information is correct, or failing to update the register within 30 business days of a change are offences. It set out review expectations covering qualifications, authorisation history, ability to provide tax (financial) advice services, and business and contact details, and provided a one-off temporary dataset to support checks; corrections must be lodged via a “maintain” transaction in ASIC Connect. ASIC will continue monitoring register data ahead of January 2026 and may take further regulatory responses if required. After 1 January 2026, ASIC will run a compliance program using Financial Advisers Register records to determine whether relevant providers remain authorised to provide personal advice to retail clients.

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