Australia · AU · Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC)
Investing from Australia
This is the market where the difference matters most, and where readers most often assume otherwise: Australia has no equivalent to SIPC. An ASIC licence is a conduct and licensing regime, not an insurance scheme. If you have been comparing brokers on the assumption that a licence implies a compensation fund, this is the page to read carefully.
- Written by
- Juan Manuel Gonzalez
- Published
- Data verified
No compensation scheme
Australia has no compensation scheme equivalent to SIPC, FSCS or CIPF. If an ASIC-licensed broker fails, there is no fund that restores missing client assets — protection rests on the requirement to hold client money in segregated accounts. The Compensation Scheme of Last Resort, operating since 2 April 2024, pays up to AUD 150,000, but only against an unpaid determination from the Australian Financial Complaints Authority in four defined subsectors. It is a backstop for unpaid complaints, not a custody guarantee.
ASIC — Compensation Scheme of Last ResortWhat we verified
Read August 30, 2026- Regulator
- ASIC, which licenses firms under the Australian Financial Services (AFS) regime. ASIC
- What actually protects client money
- Segregation. Client funds must be held separately from the firm's own money. That is a real protection, and it is not the same as a fund that makes you whole if the segregation fails.
- Compensation Scheme of Last Resort
- Up to AUD 150,000, from 2 April 2024, against unpaid AFCA determinations in personal financial advice, credit provision, credit intermediation and securities dealing for retail clients.
Why there is no ranking on this page
Ranking brokers for Australia means knowing which legal entity would hold a resident’s account — and for most global brands that is not the US broker-dealer whose name is on the app. It is a different company, under Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) rather than the SEC, with different protection behind it. Publishing our US ranking here and changing the country name would be the single most misleading thing this site could do.
What is on this page instead is the part we could verify from primary sources: who regulates brokers here, and what happens to your assets if one fails. That is the question most comparison content skips, and it is the one that does not change with a fee schedule.
What has to be verified before we rank anything here
- 01Which legal entity of each broker would hold a resident's account, and its licence number with the local regulator
- 02Whether that entity publicly accepts residents of this country, and what identity documentation it requires
- 03Accepted deposit and withdrawal methods, and any local payment rails
- 04Available base currencies and the published currency conversion cost
- 05Which products are restricted or unavailable to residents
- 06General tax treatment of brokerage accounts held by residents, framed as background rather than advice
Scheduled for phase 2 of our market roadmap. In the meantime, our guide to investor protection covers what these schemes do and do not do, and why the entity matters more than the brand.
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Risk warning
Investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal. Nothing on this site is personalized investment advice, a recommendation to buy or sell any security, or a solicitation. Figures are read from public sources on the dates shown and can change without notice — verify anything you intend to act on with the provider directly. Read the full risk disclosure.