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InFocus March 2026 - Volume 35 Issue 2

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Acting on behalf of a company: authority and consent matter 

ASIC continues to see complaints where registered agents are appointed, or act, without proper company authority. This can expose agents to misconduct complaints and potential action for non‑compliance with the Registered Agent terms and conditions.

A registered agent must only act for a company once the company has authorised the appointment by lodging a Form 362 Notification by a company to nominate or cease a registered agent or contact address, using the corporate key where online lodgement is not used. Acting before this occurs means the agent is not properly appointed.

Consent must be genuine and verifiable. Registered agents must ensure:

  • the company has actively consented
  • the appointment was made by someone authorised (such as a director or secretary)
  • evidence of consent can be produced if requested.

Acting without authority may result in complaints, corrective action on the register, and breaches of agent terms. Lodging or processing forms doesn’t validate an appointment if authority or consent was missing.

To avoid issues: only act once appointed, ensure Form 362 is lodged with the corporate key where required, keep clear consent records, and cease acting immediately if authority is withdrawn or unclear.

For more information, refer to ‘Act as a registered agent for companies’.

Industry funding levy notice: pay now to avoid penalties

ASIC recently issued industry funding levy notices to recover its FY 2024-25 regulatory costs.

Entities must pay their levy notice by Wednesday 11 March 2026.  Find out more about invoices and payment options here. 

Log into your Regulatory Portal account to view your levy notice and make a payment online. For more information, see our FAQs.

For more information about industry funding, visit our website.

Financial and sustainability reporting – FYE 31 December 2025

If the financial year end of your company, registered scheme or registrable superannuation entity was 31 December 2025, you’re required to prepare and lodge the relevant annual reporting documents, unless an exemption applies.

Understanding these requirements early can help meet obligations and avoid compliance issues.

Financial reports

Companies and registered schemes that are required to prepare financial reports must lodge the financial report together with the directors’ report and the auditor’s report on the financial report with ASIC using Form 388 Copy of financial statements and reports.

Registrable superannuation entities (RSEs) must lodge via the Regulatory Portal.

The lodgement timeframes depend on type of entity:

  • Disclosing entities, registered schemes and RSEs — within three months after the end of the financial year. Due by 31 March 2026.
  • All other entities — within four months after the end of the financial year. Due by 30 April 2026.

It’s important to allow enough time for preparation, review and any required audit before the lodgement deadline.

Sustainability reports

An entity is required to prepare a sustainability report if it:

Sustainability reporting requirements are being phased in over three years across three groups of reporting entities, with the first reporting cohort (Group 1 entities) required to prepare sustainability reports for financial years commencing on or after 1 January 2025.

The second and third reporting cohorts (which include registered schemes and RSEs meeting the relevant thresholds) are required to prepare sustainability reports for the financial years commencing on or after 1 July 2026 and 1 July 2027 respectively.

Form 398  Copy of sustainability report and auditor’s report is now available for companies lodging their sustainability reports online.

The lodgement timeframes for sustainability reports are the same as for annual financial reports. For Group 1 companies with a balance date of 31 December 2025:

  • Companies that are disclosing entities — within three months after the end of the financial year. Due by 31 March 2026.
  • All other companies — within four months after the end of the financial year. Due by 30 April 2026.

If your company is required to lodge both an annual financial report and a sustainability report for FYE 31 December 2025, the reports should be:

For detailed guidance, refer to:

These resources provide additional support to help you understand your obligations and lodge correctly and on time.

Coming soon – additional forms for email lodgements 

We’re continuing to improve how you interact with the ASIC business registers by further expanding our email lodgement service, making it easier and more convenient to lodge forms with us.

By the end of March, additional paper forms will be made available for email lodgement. This builds on last year’s change , which enable 35 forms to be submitted by email.

This means you can lodge more forms by email instead of posting.  Email lodgement is faster and more convenient, while posting will remain available if you prefer.

This next release is part of our ongoing simplification work, to reduce reliance on paper and improve your experience when dealing with us. We’ll share details of the newly enable forms next month.

We remain committed to improving the lodgement experience by continuing to expand email lodgement over time as we move toward fully streamlined digital lodgement and payment services in the future.

Read more about ASIC’s simplification initiatives. 

View the full list of forms that can be lodged emailed on our website.

Modernising transactions in the ASIC Regulatory Portal 

We’re upgrading the ASIC Regulatory Portal to deliver modernised transactions and a simpler user experience.

From 13 March 2026, you’ll start to notice some improvements to how transactions are displayed and accessed in the portal.

What’s changing

To streamline navigation, we are removing the ‘Transactions’ menu, ‘Recent activity’ list, and ‘AFS licensing dashboard’.

In their place, transactions will be organised under the following new columns:

  • ‘Modernised transactions’ – These are upgraded transactions designed for improved usability and a smoother experience.
  • ‘Original transactions’ – These are transactions that we have not yet modernised and remain available in their current format.

The first set of transactions moving under the ‘Modernised transactions’ section will be Australian financial services licence transactions.

What this means for your business

Your regulatory responsibilities do not change. These enhancements are designed to make transaction management and navigation simpler and more efficient for you.

Staying informed

We’ll continue to update the ASIC Regulatory Portal as we modernise more transactions. Keep an eye on the portal for future updates and improvements.

Protect your business from cryptocurrency email scams

A new cryptocurrency focused email scam impersonating the ATO is circulating in the community.

The scammers are pretending to be from the ATO or MyGov and are asking people to make an immediate declaration by calling the phone number on the email to avoid further action.

Protect yourself and business by reading the latest scam alert.