ASIC is augmenting its published information. What changes for advice practices?

ASIC is augmenting information already available on its website to meet its obligations under the Information Publication Scheme. The development is about ASIC's own publication duties. It does not, on the material ASIC sets out, announce a new obligation for advice businesses.

That distinction matters. A practice could see references to operational information and predict a new compliance framework for licensees, or a new task to build around ASIC's website. ASIC's Information Publication Scheme page, dated 14 July 2026, supports a narrower reading: it explains what ASIC must publish, and the limits on that obligation.

The practical question is therefore not whether advice businesses have acquired a new filing requirement. It is which published information may help a practice keep its understanding of ASIC's work current, and where the publication duty stops.

What ASIC must publish

The Information Publication Scheme was established under Part II of the Freedom of Information Act 1982. Under the scheme, ASIC must publish a plan showing how it proposes to implement its obligations under Part II, along with a range of information.

That range includes information about what ASIC does, the way it does it, and information dealt with or used in the course of its operations. Some of that information is described as operational information.

ASIC says the information it publishes must be kept accurate, up-to-date and complete. It also says it has published much of the information in question for many years, and will continue doing so while augmenting it with the additional information required to meet the scheme's requirements.

The practice implication is narrower

Consider the prediction a practice might make. If the scheme is relevant to licensees, perhaps it requires a new governance control, a new compliance folder or a formal review of every ASIC webpage used by the business.

Nothing on ASIC's page says advice practices must create such a control. The page speaks to what ASIC must publish, not to a new process imposed on financial advice businesses.

A more measured response is to review any internal description of ASIC's role, activities or processes against the material ASIC publishes. Where a procedure relies on an explanation of how ASIC operates, the practice can check that the explanation remains current. That is a governance choice, not a new requirement stated by ASIC's Information Publication Scheme.

The distinction also helps separate three things that are often blended together: what ASIC says it does, what the law requires a practice to do, and what the practice has chosen to adopt as an internal control. The scheme directly concerns the first category. It does not collapse the other two into it.

Publication has clear limits

The reference to operational information should not be read as an assurance that every document connected with ASIC's work will be published.

ASIC says it is not required to publish material that is exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act 1982. Its page identifies material subject to legal professional privilege and information whose publication could reasonably be expected to prejudice an investigation. ASIC is also not required to publish information if publication is prohibited by law.

ASIC must publish details of any fees it charges for accessing information. Taken together, those provisions describe a defined publication framework. They do not promise that all information held by ASIC, or all material connected with an investigation, will be published.

The direct subject of the development is ASIC's publication duty. Advice businesses should avoid treating it as a new licensee obligation, while using relevant, current ASIC material as one input when reviewing their own governance documents.¹