GRC Report Staff

The Federal Court found that Choosi Pty Ltd breached consumer protection provisions of the ASIC Act by misleading consumers into believing its comparison service surveyed a broad range of insurers, when in fact it overwhelmingly compared products from a single related insurer, Hannover. This case reinforces ASIC's continued enforcement focus on comparison services and "choice architecture" misrepresentations, with penalty submissions still to come.

The FCA's Q2 2026 MLAR statistics show outstanding residential mortgage balances, gross advances, and new commitments all rising quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year. While this is a routine data publication rather than a new rule, it provides compliance and risk teams with key market benchmarks for monitoring lending trends, affordability pressures, and prudential exposure.

The FCA has published findings from its Defence, Security, and Resilience (DSR) Lab, a joint exercise with the Ministry of Defence that tested firms' preparedness for systemic, sector-wide shocks such as satellite spoofing, subsea cable damage, and cyberattacks on critical infrastructure. While not formal guidance or a statement of regulatory obligations, the update signals growing supervisory focus on shared dependencies and national resilience, and provides a self-assessment framework compliance teams should use proactively.

ASIC secured a significant custodial sentence against former Western Australian director Joanne Pellew for dishonestly using her director position to transfer approximately AUD $739,655 between related companies, and for managing a corporation while disqualified. The case underscores ASIC's continued enforcement focus on director misconduct and breaches of disqualification orders, reinforcing the serious criminal consequences for abuse of the corporate form.

The FCA has issued a warning identifying "Capital Zodiac" as a clone firm fraudulently impersonating authorized firm Zodiac Partners Ltd (FRN 806702). Compliance teams should note this as part of ongoing clone firm fraud trends and ensure customer-facing staff and fraud monitoring systems are updated to recognize and flag related indicators.

ASIC's Report 571 details the regulator's efforts to assist, engage with, and protect small businesses under its 2017–2020 strategy, including registry modernization, financial capability resources, and enforcement against illegal phoenix activity. For compliance teams at financial institutions, this report signals ASIC's continued regulatory focus on small business lending practices, unfair contract terms, and corporate governance, with implications for how lenders structure small business loan contracts and monitor for phoenix activity.

ASIC's Chair outlined active investigations into KPMG and Big Four audit firms, flagged systemic risks in private credit following the Bathla collapse, and detailed record enforcement outcomes of AUD $830 Million in civil penalties. Compliance teams across banking, insurance, audit, and private credit sectors should note heightened regulatory scrutiny and expect further guidance before year-end.