Overview
- In his final speech as chair, Joe Longo warned lenders to help customers in financial hardship or expect ASIC to step in.
- He urged the federal government to ban unlicensed superannuation pitches, targeting cold-callers and online lead generators that push risky switches of retirement savings.
- ASIC tied those referral pipelines to the Shield Master and First Guardian fund failures, noting about A$421 million has been returned to affected investors so far.
- Longo said ASIC’s tougher stance has doubled formal investigations, secured about A$411 million in civil penalties this fiscal year, and taken down close to 12,000 phishing and investment scam sites in the past year.
- He flagged agentic AI as a force multiplier for scams and said ASIC will publish reports on high-fee debt management, debt collection and car financing under incoming chair Sarah Court.