ASIC levy again hits AFSLs hard

Mike Taylor

Managing Editor and Publisher

2 February 2026

Financial advice licensees have been reflecting on the invoices they have been receiving from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and pointing out an almost doubling in the ASIC funding levy between 2021-22 and 2024-25.

Some AFSLs have shared their ASIC industry funding levy notices with Financial Newswire and noting the fact that they fall due for payment in early March.

What is more they have noted that while the graduated levy applying to the number of financial advisers authorised had dropped by 10.8%, ASIC had significantly upped the ante with respect to that applying to securities dealers.

One licensee said the levy rate per $10,000 of transactions for securities had jumped 52% from $0.25 to $0.38 meaning that, for his business, the graduated levy had risen by “a whopping 84.81%”.

“It’s like ASIC decided trading volume is the new sin tax – the more you transact, the more you pay for the privilege of being regulated,” he said. It’s absurd. If volumes keep climbing, we’ll be funding ASIC’s next office reno!”

The same licensee also noted the impact of the levy to fund the Compensation Scheme of Last Resort (CSLR) which, in the case of his comparatively small business, was approaching $10,000.

All the licensees spoken to by Financial Newswire complained not so much about the need for the CSLR but that they felt like financial advisers were being unfairly treated in paying for the misdeeds of others, particularly Managed Investment Schemes (MISs).

“It feels like we’re being made to pay for everyone else’s party,” one said.

The common view was that the Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services, Daneil Mulino needs to expedite the current reviews of the CSLR funding arrangements to both spread the cost of funding as well as delivering more certainty.

The minister is not expected to announce any firm policy direction from the review processes until at least the middle of February.