ASIC published its 2026 enforcement priorities in February and reiterated them in a May 2026 update. Mortgage broker conduct sits at the top of the credit-sector list. Three areas are flagged: best-interest-duty (BID) compliance, complaints handling, and audit and compliance practice at aggregator level.
The context that matters: mortgage broking now originates more than 75 per cent of new residential mortgages in Australia (MFAA Industry Intelligence Service), up from just over 50 per cent a decade ago. ASIC enforcement attention scales with channel share, and the channel has reached the point where it carries most of the consumer-credit conversation.
What BID actually requires
The best interests duty came in on 1 January 2021 under the National Consumer Credit Protection Act amendments. It is not a "quality of advice" rule. It is a statutory duty: the broker must act in the borrower's best interests, full stop. Not their own commission, not the lender's preferences, not the aggregator's panel weighting.
In practice that means: comparing a meaningful range of lenders, not defaulting to the lender that pays the highest commission; presenting the cost, features and trade-offs of each shortlisted option in writing; explaining why the recommended product fits the borrower's stated objectives; and keeping a documented record the borrower can verify.
ASIC's 2026 focus areas, decoded
ASIC's February briefing called out three specific concerns. First, BID compliance gaps where brokers default to a small subset of lenders without documenting why. Second, complaints handling where dispute volumes (via AFCA) are sitting at multi-year highs and brokers are not following the internal-dispute-resolution timeframes. Third, audit and compliance at the aggregator level where some aggregators are not adequately monitoring broker behaviour.
The implication is that enforcement actions are likely to focus less on individual brokers and more on the aggregators that license them. Aggregators have already begun tightening internal audit: file-quality reviews have moved from quarterly samples to monthly, and several aggregators have introduced lender-mix benchmarks where a broker writing more than 60 per cent of business to a single lender triggers a file review.
Six questions to ask any broker you speak to
You do not need to memorise BID, but you can sanity-check it. If a broker can answer the following clearly, you have a broker doing the job properly.
- "How many lenders are on your panel, and how many did you actually consider for me?" A genuine BID-aligned broker will reference a meaningful comparison, not "I always go with X".
- "What's the commission structure on the product you're recommending versus the next-best option?" Brokers are required to disclose commissions in the credit-quote document. The answer should not be a shrug.
- "What are the two products closest to your recommendation that you decided not to put forward, and why?" This forces the broker to show their working.
- "What's your aggregator's name and ACL? Who is the credit licensee on the credit quote?" Useful for tracing accountability and (if needed) lodging complaints.
- "What's the IDR (internal dispute resolution) timeframe if something goes wrong, and how do I escalate to AFCA?" Regulated 30 days for most complaints; brokers should know this cold.
- "Are you a member of the MFAA or FBAA, and how long have you held your credit rep number?" Industry-body membership is voluntary but signals professional accountability beyond the legal minimum.
The Credit Guide: read it
Every credit assistance provider must give you a Credit Guide before they do anything else. It lists the licensee, the aggregator, the lender panel, the commission ranges, and the dispute process. Most consumers never open it. ASIC research suggests fewer than one in five borrowers read the credit guide they were given. Reading it takes ten minutes and tells you 80 per cent of what you need to know about who you are dealing with.
What it means for borrowers shopping a loan in 2026
The regulatory tightening is good for borrowers. Brokers who were already running clean processes will be unaffected. Brokers who were defaulting to a narrow lender set will be pulled into line by aggregator audit. Aggregators that were not monitoring closely will be the first to draw ASIC attention.
The practical effect on your loan: more documentation, more written rationale, slightly longer turnaround on the initial recommendation. The trade-off is a documented case that the loan you signed up for is the one the broker actually compared against the alternatives, not just the one with the easiest paperwork.