Australian Securities & Investments Commission releases data showing a 28% rise in misconduct reports driven by corporate governance issues

The Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) published new reports of misconduct (ROMs) data for 1 July to 31 December 2025, showing an increase in reporting largely driven by corporate governance concerns. ASIC linked the figures to its enforcement priorities, including tackling governance and directors’ duties failures, and noted it has a number of active investigations in this area. It also issued its six-monthly enforcement and regulatory update, highlighting AUD 349.8 million in civil penalties imposed by courts and hundreds of millions of dollars returned to Australians through investigation and remediation work. ASIC received 9,686 ROMs in the half-year, raising 13,036 issues, with corporate governance matters comprising 40% of issues and financial services and retail investor matters totalling 44% (more than 5,700 issues). Corporate governance issues rose to 5,217 from 3,819 in the previous period, spanning governance concerns (35% of the category), failures to provide records to liquidators on company activities (19%), fraud allegations (11%), insolvency issues (9%) and reports relating to registered liquidator conduct (5%). The 28% increase in ROMs versus January to June 2025 was partly attributed to ASIC’s website uplift in June, which made lodging reports easier. The half-yearly ROMs report and ASIC’s enforcement and regulatory update for July to December 2025 are available on its website.