Check against delivery

Thank you to the Committee and the Chair for the opportunity to appear today.

I am joined today by Commissioners Alan Kirkland, Kate O’Rourke and Simone Constant, CEO Scott Gregson and Executive Director for Enforcement and Compliance, Chris Savundra.

Deputy Chair Sarah Court is unable to be with us today. She is attending the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Financial Markets Week on 2-6 March 2026 in Paris, in her capacity as Bureau Member of the OECD Committee on Financial Markets.

I would also like to acknowledge Senator Paul Scarr who has this week re-joined the committee and to acknowledge the contribution of Senator Jane Hume.

Enforcement update

ASIC is one of the most active law enforcement agencies in the country. We are taking more cases to court, achieving record penalties, and protecting consumers.

I am pleased to report to the committee that through our ongoing determination to build up our enforcement capability, ASIC secured a record $350 million in civil penalties and $583 million back to Australians from July to December 2025. This includes recovery of funds for those affected by the First Guardian and Shield matters.

We are holding individuals to account for their actions in civil and criminal matters. They are facing the consequences for their crimes, including jail time.

Just yesterday, the Federal Court found two former senior executives of The Star Entertainment Group Ltd – the former CEO Matthias Bekier and the former Chief Legal and Risk Officer, Paula Martin - breached their duties in relation to their handling of the risks associated with money laundering and criminal activity at the casino.

The Court found the seven non-executive directors did not breach their duties in this case.

The matter will be listed for a further penalty hearing when ASIC will ask the Court to impose a financial penalty on Mr Bekier and Ms Martin and to disqualify them from managing corporations for a period of time. 

ASIC pursued this case because of the fundamental questions it raised about trust, governance and accountability at one of Australia’s largest casino operators.

ASIC will always require directors and executives to meet the highest standards of corporate governance because of the crucial role they play in maintaining trust.

In October, the Supreme Court of Western Australia sentenced Chris Marco to 14 years imprisonment, with eligibility for parole after 12 years. Mr Marco was found guilty of fraud offences against investors totalling more than $34 million. The sentence was the highest imposed by an Australian court following an ASIC investigation. We note that Mr Marco is currently appealing his conviction.

In November Krishnakumar Agrawal was sentenced to four years and ten months imprisonment, with a non-parole period of more than three years, for dishonest use of his position as a director. This matter related to a property group that collapsed owing investors from Sydney’s Indian community over $20 million.

In January, former investment manager Rodney Forrest was sentenced to six years imprisonment for insider trading and procuring others to trade in more than $3 million of Platinum Asset Management Limited shares. We note that in February Mr Forrest filed an appeal with the Federal Court against his sentence.

This marks the first outcome for ASIC’s new specialist insider trading team which investigated and finalised the case within 16 months of the offending. We expect to make a number of criminal referrals for insider trading to the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions this calendar year.

We also continue our focus on pursuing enforcement actions that have the greatest impact on the most serious harms within our remit, and that reverberate across the market.

On ANZ, the bank was ordered in December 2025 to pay $250 million in penalties for widespread misconduct and systemic risk failures affecting the Australian Government, taxpayers and at least 65,000 retail bank customers. This represent the highest ever penalties imposed on a single institution in ASIC’s history as a regulator.

Our banks need to get the basics right. We continue to prioritise pursuing misconduct affecting consumers, businesses and the economy.

Separately, new ASIC data released just last week shows an increase in reports of misconduct, driven largely by corporate governance concerns. 
 
Between 1 July and 31 December 2025, ASIC received 9,686 reports of misconduct, raising 13,036 issues. Corporate governance matters accounted for 40% of these issues, with financial services and retail investor issues totalling 44%.  
 
We believe the figures point to an increase in concerns being raised about corporate governance issues and underscore our enforcement priorities for 2026 which include tackling governance and directors’ duties failures.  ASIC has a number of active investigations into governance failures and directors’ duties.  
 
Robust governance isn’t just good practice – it’s good for business and it’s good for the Australian economy.  

Shield and First Guardian

First Guardian and Shield is an enforcement priority for 2026. Our primary aim in these matters has been and remains to preserve available money for the benefit of investors. We continue to work with all stakeholders, including government, on this.

Last month, ASIC began a widespread communications campaign to those who invested in First Guardian and Shield, including a link to a dedicated consumer website that contains trusted and independent support, and options to make a complaint.

Our litigation continues apace. Since our last appearance in September last year we have taken action in court against:

• SQM, the research house responsible for the ratings of the Shield fund
• financial advice firms Interprac Financial Planning and MWL
• lead generator Imperial Capital Group, and
• Diversa Trustees Limited, alleging failures concerning the First Guardian Master Fund. Around $300 million was invested into First Guardian through superannuation funds for which Diversa was trustee.

I want to thank and acknowledge all the ASIC staff involved in this work, with many working around the clock, after hours and over many weekends.

We will not rest until our work on these matters is complete and those responsible have been properly held to account.

ASX

In December 2025 we announced a number of commitments that ASX Group have made to ASIC, in response to findings in the Interim Report of the ASX Inquiry.

These included:

• Strengthening the independence and governance of ASX’s Clearing and Settlement Facilities Boards
• A strategic reset of ASX’s transformation program ‘Accelerate’, with clear milestones and accountability for delivery
• The imposition of an additional $150 million capital charge on ASX Limited to ensure ASX maintains robust financial resources until remediation is complete. The capital charge will remain until ASX Group achieves the milestones identified in the reset Accelerate Program, and ASIC agrees to reduce or remove it. This is in addition to existing capital requirements applying to ASX Group entities, including regulatory capital requirements on ASX’s clearing and settlement facilities under Standards set by the Reserve Bank of Australia. ASX has confirmed it has enough liquid assets to meet current requirements and will clearly show this in future disclosures.
• A commitment to stronger leadership.

These measures aim to strengthen confidence in ASX and Australia’s critical market infrastructure and provide certainty about the market operator’s reset. The inquiry’s final report is due to be delivered to ASIC by 31 March 2026 and will be released publicly shortly thereafter.

We welcome the committee’s questions.