Corporate cop Joe Longo to step down as ASIC chair

2 hours ago 1

We’re sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. We’re working to restore it. Please try again later.

Skip to sections navigation Skip to content Skip to footer

Australia’s corporate watchdog Joe Longo will step down after a term in which the regulator has turned up the heat on the country’s superannuation giants over their treatment of customers, while also maintaining pressure on banks over consumer protection.

The chair of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), who turned 66 on Thursday, announced on Friday he would leave the watchdog when his current five-year term ends in May next year.

ASIC chair Joe Longo appearing before a parliamentary joint committee this week.

Longo will leave the watchdog after a period in which it has increased the number of new civil cases by a fifth, and taken on more investigations, while launching landmark cases against super fund giants including AustralianSuper and Cbus.

In those cases, ASIC took the super giants to court over their handling of death benefit claims, and the action was part of a wider push for the superannuation sector to lift its game in its customer service.

Under Longo, ASIC has also kept the pressure on banking giants over their treatment of more vulnerable customers, including pushing banks to refund millions of dollars in fees to customers receiving government benefits, and taking action over failings in banks’ handling of customers in hardship.

ASIC has also been through a major restructure aimed at simplifying how it makes decisions on reports of misconduct in the financial sector.

“When I accepted the position, I was clear [that] ASIC needed to become a modern, confident and ambitious regulator,” Longo said in a statement on Friday.

“With the most significant organisational restructure in 15 years, new commissioners, a new CEO and refreshed senior executive team, I see that transformation is delivering dividends.”

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the search had begun for ASIC’s next chair as he thanked Longo for overseeing the regulator during a period of “heightened economic, geopolitical and technological change”.

Chalmers also announced on Friday that the deputy chair of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, Margaret Cole, would leave the regulator in June next year. Cole has overseen major reforms of the superannuation sector since her appointment in 2021.

The Business Briefing newsletter delivers major stories, exclusive coverage and expert opinion. Sign up to get it every weekday morning.