CS 26 Proposed update to RG 183

Released 24 July 2025. Comments closed 1 September 2025.

ASIC proposes updating Regulatory Guide 183 Approval of financial services sector codes of conduct (RG 183) to ensure the currency of our guidance on ASIC’s regulatory approach to approving industry codes of conduct and to clarify and simplify this guidance.

Our proposed update to RG 183 seeks to:

reflect legislative reform since the guidance was last updated, including the changes to the industry codes of conduct regime introduced by the Financial Sector Reform (Hayne Royal Commission Response) Act 2020
clarify ASIC’s role in relation to industry codes, as well as the criteria and process for our approval of a code, and
simplify the existing guidance where possible.

See Related links for a copy of the draft updated RG 183 and a more detailed summary of the proposed changes.

A consultation paper was not issued for this consultation.

Providing feedback

We invite feedback on our proposal, including:

whether our guidance is sufficiently clear to meet the needs of users, and
any suggested changes you may have to our guidance (if so, please provide details).

You should send your submission to rri.consultation@asic.gov.au by 5 pm AEST Monday 1 September 2025.

You may choose to remain anonymous or use an alias when providing feedback. However, if you do remain anonymous, we will not be able to contact you to discuss your feedback should we need to.

We will not treat your feedback as confidential unless you specifically request that we treat the whole or part of it (such as any personal or financial information) as confidential.

Please see our privacy policy for more information on how we handle personal information, your rights to seek access to and correct personal information, and your right to complain about breaches of privacy by ASIC.

Background

It is not mandatory for any industry in the financial services or credit sectors to develop a code. Where a code exists, that code does not have to be approved by ASIC. However, where approval by ASIC is sought and obtained, it is a signal to consumers that this is a code they can have confidence in.

RG 183 provides guidance on ASIC’s role in relation to codes, the criteria for code approval, and the process for obtaining (and retaining) ASIC approval for a code.

Consultation feedback and ASIC’s response

Released 2 December 2025.

ASIC received 10 non-confidential submissions and no confidential submissions. We have summarised key feedback on draft updated RG 183 and our responses, including how we have addressed the feedback in the final RG 183 where relevant.

Summary of feedback to CS 26 and ASIC’s response (PDF 304 KB)

Submissions

(non-confidential submissions)