ASIC Finalises 1,176 Licensing Applications in FY25 as Approval Volume Climbs

Australia’s financial regulator has released its FY25 licensing results, confirming a significant rise in activity across AFS and credit licence categories. The regulator reports that 1,176 applications were finalised in the past financial year, reflecting increasing momentum in licence approvals and regulatory turnover.

Between July 2024 and June 2025, ASIC granted 290 new Australian Financial Services licences and cancelled or suspended 215. Although the regulator has not identified individual firms, the scale of these outcomes shows how quickly the landscape is shifting. For intermediaries such as CFD brokers, fund managers, and crypto operators, the expectation is clear. Licensing obligations will be monitored more closely and ongoing compliance is being prioritised above simple entry into the market.

ASIC received more than 1,500 licensing and registration applications during the year and finalised over 1,100 of them, including 450 variations to existing licences. Applications for new AFS licences increased by around ten percent as more firms attempted to join Australia’s regulated financial ecosystem. To support market integrity, the regulator completed more than three quarters of all initial and variation applications within 150 days, maintaining decision speed despite the growing workload.

The flow of applications from digital asset businesses continues to build. Recent clarification from ASIC confirmed that many tokens, custody arrangements, and crypto investment structures fall within the scope of financial regulation. This prompted a surge of digital asset operators seeking formal authorisation to operate in Australia. The regulator expects the number of crypto related applications to rise further as the sector matures and firms transition from unregulated operations to fully licensed models.

In parallel with licensing work, ASIC continued its campaign against fraudulent activity in the online trading environment. The regulator removed 6,900 investment scam and phishing websites during the same period. These results underline ASIC’s focus on reducing harm to retail investors and limiting the influence of misleading online schemes. Legitimate brokers, product issuers, and financial service providers are encouraged to maintain high standards of onboarding and disclosure to avoid regulatory intervention.

ASIC also released a new regulatory guide for exchange traded products known as RG 282. The guide consolidates admission guidelines, market operator obligations, and responsible entity expectations into a single reference. With the Australian ETP market now valued at about two hundred billion dollars, the updated guidance aims to support transparency, improve liquidity arrangements, and bring more consistency to the supervision of listed products.

The combination of rising licence volumes, new regulatory guidance, and expanding digital asset participation signals a period of structural change for Australia’s financial sector. Firms operating in this environment will need to strengthen governance and compliance strategies in order to keep pace with ASIC’s evolving expectations.