ASIC Penalties Jump Eightfold to $830 Million as Insurance Comes Into Focus

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission recorded $830 million in court-ordered civil penalties and $644 million in consumer remediation payments across the 2025-26 financial year, according to figures published on July 20, 2026. The scale becomes clearer against the prior year, when the regulator secured $104.1 million in civil penalties across the whole of 2024-25, making the latest total roughly eight times as large. Insurance and superannuation claims handling featured prominently. The Federal Court ordered the trustee of Cbus, United Super Pty Ltd, to pay a $23.5 million penalty over unreasonable delays affecting more than 7,000 members and claimants in processing death benefits and total and permanent disability insurance claims. Separate civil penalty proceedings against AustralianSuper, filed in March 2025 over alleged delays in processing death benefit claims, remain before the courts. For life insurers providing group cover through superannuation funds, the cases create compliance exposure extending into service-level arrangements with trustees rather than sitting with fund governance alone. The volume of death benefit claims rose 10% in the twelve months to October 2025, and the regulator expects that growth to accelerate given Australia's ageing population.