Australia’s corporate watchdog reports that courts imposed $480 million in civil penalties in the first six months of 2026, including actions against Union Standard and HSBC. Those cases helped push total penalty orders for the 2025-26 financial year to $830 million in civil fines. Regulators frame that figure as evidence of a tougher enforcement stance. ASIC is targeting misconduct aggressively across the financial sector.
Alongside the headline penalties, ASIC highlights how much money is flowing back to affected customers. The regulator says $643.5 million is being repaid, driven by an extra $61 million in remediation in the second half of the financial year. That sits on top of $583 million previously announced between June and December 2025. Fines and repayments are hitting both corporate balance sheets and compensation obligations.
Enforcement activity itself has ramped up sharply across the year. From July 2025 to June 2026, ASIC opened more than 250 investigations into potential breaches. Courts recorded 25 criminal convictions linked to its work, reinforcing that cases are not just civil.
Regulators also kicked off 32 new civil proceedings and 18 new criminal prosecutions, signalling a pipeline of further actions and potential penalties.
