ASIC Chair Sarah Court speaks at ABA Conference

[Newsroom](https://www.asic.gov.au/newsroom) PrintShare - [X Opens in new window](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.asic.gov.au%2Fabout-asic%2Fnews-centre%2Farticles%2Fasic-chair-sarah-court-speaks-at-aba-conference%2F&text=ASIC%20Chair%20Sarah%20Court%20speaks%20at%20ABA%20Conference) - [Facebook Opens in new window](https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.asic.gov.au%2Fabout-asic%2Fnews-centre%2Farticles%2Fasic-chair-sarah-court-speaks-at-aba-conference%2F) - [LinkedIn Opens in new window](https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.asic.gov.au%2Fabout-asic%2Fnews-centre%2Farticles%2Fasic-chair-sarah-court-speaks-at-aba-conference%2F) - [Email Opens in new window](mailto:?subject=ASIC%20Chair%20Sarah%20Court%20speaks%20at%20ABA%20Conference&body=An%20article%20from%20ASIC%3A%0D%0A%0D%0AASIC%20Chair%20Sarah%20Court%20speaks%20at%20ABA%20Conference%0D%0A%0D%0Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.asic.gov.au%2Fabout-asic%2Fnews-centre%2Farticles%2Fasic-chair-sarah-court-speaks-at-aba-conference%2F) _**Chair Sarah Court spoke in a fireside discussion with The Hon. Simon Birmingham, CEO of the Australian Banking Association (ABA), at the ABA conference in Melbourne on 17 June 2026.**_ **Check against delivery** **Simon:** Sarah, thank you very much. We are delighted that you’ve taken the time early on to be able to come to this feature event for the ABA. As \[MC\] Ticky \[Fullerton\] acknowledged in her introduction, you’re very experienced in stepping into the role as ASIC Chair, including that experience, obviously, from your time as Deputy. Start with just some reflections on the last five years, and how you see that framing and shaping the way you step into now the hot seat of the Chair’s role. **Sarah:** Thank you. Well, good morning, everyone. It’s good to be here, and I very much appreciate the invitation so early in my tenure. The last five years, well, I think the first thing I’d say, Simon, just looking back, is that the ASIC of today looks very different to the ASIC that I joined five years ago, and I think that’s a good thing. At that time, of course, we were very much in the aftermath of the Royal Commission, as was the banking sector as a whole. And since then, it’s been really a period of great change. Some of those changes we have very deliberately strengthened our enforcement posture that we’ve taken on a lot of big cases. We’ve had record penalties imposed by the court. And indeed, we’ve had record custodial sentences imposed as well. I’m assuming this audience is not quite so familiar with that part of our work, but we have a very active criminal investigation program as well. We’ve driven our regulatory agenda forward. That includes work, again, very familiar to this audience, on financial hardship and scams. And it reflects a continuing focus from us, perhaps an increased focus from us, on consumer outcomes. And we’ve done a lot of work alongside this sector on improving customer outcomes, particularly those resulting from failures in systems and processes. And I did just want to take a moment, Simon, to talk about this issue, about systemic failure, process failure. Because we hear a lot from large financial institutions. When we’re looking at poor customer outcomes or conduct issues, often the response to that is, well, look, we’ve got these really old systems, they don’t really talk to each other. It’s really expensive to invest in upgrading. And I think we don’t accept those as reasons for the customer impacts from those failures. And indeed, we’ve made as one of our enduring enforcement priorities, something we describe as systemic failures by large financial institutions that result in customer and consumer harm. That’s an area that we’ll certainly continue to focus on going forward. Regulatory simplification, that’s another big piece of work that we’ve been doing. I know it’s really topical. It’s been the case this morning. We’ve made meaningful progress on it, and we have tried to listen very carefully to issues that have been raised with us by the sector. And you and I have spoken in the past, Simon, about particularly that duplication in data collection by various regulators. I know that causes frustration, and we’re working closely with APRA and other regulators in really working out how to make some meaningful reductions there. And I think just finally to look back is, there has been enormous law reform over the last five years following the Royal Commission, and we have all had to work towards implementation of that. And some of those changes, I think it’s fair to say, have proven a real challenge for all of us to implement. Both the regulators and the regulated. I recognise that going forward, look, the banking sector obviously faces a lot of increased complexity. I’m sure you’re spending the morning talking about the challenges and risks. I’m talking about geopolitical in particular, but the other obvious one is AI. And so, as a regulator, what we want to be able to do is to use our regulatory toolkit in a way that of course supports innovation, productivity and growth, but while at the same time maintaining those important consumer protections. The Financial \[Services\] Royal Commission, I don’t want to keep talking about it, and indeed, coming in today, I sort of thought, how much should we still be talking about the Royal Commission? It was a long time ago now. I think it is though, certainly from where I sit, it is very important that the lessons of the Royal Commission are not forgotten or diluted. We’re continuing to think about those things. As many of you will know, we did raise some concerns recently when some of the banks changed their rem \[remuneration\] model for proprietary lenders. We’re also conscious of the discussion to move back towards providing advice. I think we’ll have some thoughts about some things to say about that. It’s important in our view that the sector doesn’t overcorrect at all, in our view, to some of those Financial \[Services Royal\] Commission consequences. And then finally, I just wanted to let you know; one of the issues that we have started regularly hearing more about is the difficulty that some older Australians are facing when trying to access credit. And it’s been particularly raised with us in the concept of access to credit cards. And this is in circumstances where those people have significant liquid assets that would be available to discharge any balances. Now, we have a concern about that. We have a few queries about that. The responsible lending obligations are clearly a very important consumer protection. Obviously, we remain very committed to them. But they are principles-based, and they do provide lenders with some flexibility. I think our current view within ASIC is, look, lenders can actually do a lot more for this older Australian cohort under the current settings than perhaps some of them are willing to do. But at the same time, we also, to give a bit of a nudge or a prompt in that direction, have considered whether or not we might do some minor updates to our reg \[regulatory\] guide, so reg \[regulatory\] guide 209 on that issue, just to make sure that there is some real clarity for lenders. That’s a long list of where we’ve come from and where we might go to, Simon, but those are some of my thoughts. **Simon:** Thanks so much, Sarah. Indeed, there was a lot in that, and thank you for doing so. I’ll touch on a couple, particularly just that last point around, indeed, senior Australians. There are always things that surprise you as you take on a new role, in a new industry, and you bring a wealth of experience. Mine was tangential to banking, but not direct, and there are plenty of big issues and bigger things that I’ve had to learn about in the last few months. But also the little things that come along, that advocacy from seniors groups to talk to us, to talk to you, and to say, this isn’t quite