Some 9,240 pages of regulation have been culled, the corporate regulator said, since the consultative group was announced last November at the regulator’s annual forum.
It is now seeing an input range of initiatives aimed at making regulation clearer, more accessible, and easier to navigate while maintaining strong consumer protections.
The reduction has focused on:
- Improving access to regulatory information.
- Reducing complexity in regulatory instruments.
- Making it easier to interact with ASIC.
The consultative group includes chair Joe Longo, Nicola Wakefield-Evans from the Future Fund, Xavier O’Halloran from Super Consumers Australia, and Anna Bligh of the Australian Banking Association, among 11 members.
ASIC chair and co-chair of the consultative group, Longo said: “Regulatory complexity raises costs, stifles innovation, and makes compliance harder.
“Since we formed the ASIC Simplification Consultative Group late last year with key leaders across business, industry and consumer groups, we have been focused on simplifying how we regulate.
“Simpler, clearer regulation is more enforceable, but it also means more seamless interactions with ASIC, more understandable rules to protect consumers, and clearer compliance requirements.”
Regarding financial advice, it included a financial advice roadmap – one of two roadmaps with the second focused on small company directors. This focuses on providing financial advisers and AFSLs with an overarching view of their regulatory obligations.
“To support licensees and financial advisers in staying on top of their obligations, we have developed a pilot regulatory roadmap for this sector. Like the one for directors of small companies, this roadmap aims to bring together answers to key questions.
“However, it focuses more on the requirements around what financial product advice is, why it is important to know this, and the legal obligations that AFS licensees and advisers have when giving such advice. We recognise this roadmap may need to be updated as the government progresses its current financial advice reforms.”
ASIC is seeking feedback from stakeholders on these initiatives and simplification more broadly by 15 October 2025.
The push for streamlined regulation is also a focus of the Delivering Better Financial Outcomes legislation, with red tape reduction for financial advice part of the first tranche of reforms.
