InFocus September 2025 - Volume 34 Issue 8

• ASIC Corporate Plan 2025-26: Safeguarding the Financial Ecosystem
• ASIC slashes red tape and calls for further regulatory simplification proposals
• Service Availability at ASIC
• Voluntary Deregistration – Refund – How to get one  
• Know who’s licensed: Use ASIC’s Professional Registers Search
• Discover the value of trademarks for small businesses

ASIC Corporate Plan 2025-26: Safeguarding the Financial Ecosystem

ASIC released its Corporate Plan for 2025-26 outlining our priorities over the next year and beyond.

It is directing resources to areas of greatest risk, continuing work on high-risk super switching, and launching more than a dozen new regulatory initiatives. These include reviews of offset accounts, debt collection practices, whistleblower protections, and advice around SMSF establishment.

The plan also formalises ASIC’s commitment to regulatory simplification, aiming to reduce complexity and improve stakeholder engagement.

With a renewed focus and expanded enforcement capability, ASIC is positioning itself as a modern, confident, and ambitious regulator ready to meet emerging challenges.

Refer to our Corporate Plan 2025-26 and the recent media release from the ASIC Chair Joe Longo.

ASIC slashes red tape and calls for further regulatory simplification proposals

A new report from ASIC reveals the agency has culled more than 9,240 pages of regulation since the beginning of the year as it calls for further ideas for regulatory simplification.

The report, Regulatory Simplification, marks the first milestone in ASIC’s simplification work and seeks input on a range of initiatives aimed at making regulation clearer, more accessible and easier to navigate—while maintaining strong consumer protections.

ASIC initiatives outlined in the report include:

• Improving access to regulatory information, including the redesigned ASIC website that has cut more than 9,000 pages of content.
• Making it easier to interact with ASIC, including transitioning more ‘paper-only’ documents to email lodgement and enabling electronic signatures on all forms by 1 October this year. These are practical next steps towards fully streamlined digital lodgement services in the future.

ASIC is seeking feedback on these and other simplification initiatives by 15 October 2025. Submissions can made to simplificationconsultativegroup@asic.gov.au.

For more information, read our latest media release.

Service Availability at ASIC

More reliable access to company searches
We’ve improved access to our high-volume company search services, particularly on weekends. Between January and June 2025, scheduled downtime for planned maintenance on Saturdays was reduced to a total of 28 hours, compared to 104 hours in the same period in 2024. This is a 73% improvement in access to ASIC’s registry data on Saturdays. These improvements benefit information brokers, credit bureaus and other high-volume data consumers who use registry data to support activities such as credit checks, legal compliance, and business verification.

Scheduled and unscheduled service interruptions
To ensure our systems remain secure and up to date, ASIC plans scheduled interruptions to our online services for essential upgrades.

In addition to scheduled maintenance, there may be instances of unscheduled outages that need to be performed due to unforeseen circumstances.

We understand these interruptions may affect how you interact with us. During these times, you may be redirected to our Service availability webpage.

Stay informed
To stay informed, visit www.asic.gov.au  and search for ‘Service availability’. This page provides:

- Current unscheduled outages
- Upcoming scheduled service interruptions
- A record of past service interruptions

We recommend saving the page — Service availability — to your browser favourites so you can easily check for updates at any time.

We thank you for your continued support and understanding as we work to improve our services.

Voluntary Deregistration – Refund – How to get one

Before applying for voluntary deregistration, you should ensure all company assets have been dealt with, as any remaining assets— including credit balances—will typically transfer to ASIC or the Commonwealth after deregistration.

If your application is approved, a notice of intent to deregister will be published in the gazette. To claim any eligible refund, you must apply before the company is deregistered. Details on how to request a refund can be found in the ‘Refunds’ section of the ASIC website.

Refunds cannot be processed once deregistration is complete. Any credit balances will be sent to unclaimed monies.

Is the upcoming Annual Review Fee payable?
Provided the voluntary deregistration application is approved and the notice is published before the Annual Review Fee payment due date, you are not required to pay this fee. If you have already paid, please request for a refund.  See our guidance for refund in our website.

Agents who have lodged and paid the Form 6010 application fee on behalf of their clients should inform their clients accordingly to prevent any unnecessary payments.

Know who’s licensed: Use ASIC’s Professional Registers Search 

The ASIC Professional Registers Search (PRS) is your source for verifying whether a person or organisation requiring a licence from ASIC to provide a service in Australia is licensed.

You can use the PRS to search for:

- AFS licensees and authorised representatives
- Credit licensees and representatives
- Registered auditors and liquidators
- Managed investment schemes
- Approved SMSF auditors

It’s a free search that provides key details such as registration numbers, licence status, and conditions. You can see examples of free product samples on our Search Fees webpage.

The historical professional registers are still available to search via ASIC Connect. This includes:

- credit registered persons, and
- roles recorded on the pre-financial services regime (pre-FSR) register of licensees and
   authorisations.

These registers are available for historical purposes only.

Read more information about PRS on our website.

Spotlight article from other Government departments or industries

Discover the value of trade marks for small businesses   Have you considered a registered trade mark to protect your brand, logo or other unique elements?  IP Australia explains the value in trade mark registration, with guidance on why it’s important to check if your ideas infringe on currently registered trade marks.    Check out the IP Australia website to discover a step-by-step trade mark journey for small business.