Australia's markets regulator has put nine retail trading platforms on notice. ASIC said on 13 August 2026 that its review of online brokers selling short dated exchange traded options, futures and fractional shares to retail clients found weak onboarding, thin disclosure and target market documents that did not do their job. The nine firms are Interactive Brokers Australia, Moomoo Securities Australia, Sharesies Australia, Stakeshop, tastytrade Australia, Tiger Brokers, Totality Wealth, Trading 212 and Webull Securities Australia.
The review ran from March to June 2026 and focused on how these platforms sign clients up. What ASIC found will sound familiar to anyone who followed the CFD crackdowns of the past decade. Suitability questionnaires that barely changed from client to client. Screening tests that let applicants retry until they passed. Fractional share documents that never quite explained what the investor actually owns, what it costs, or whether the holding can be moved elsewhere.
Free Trades, Cash Vouchers and Airline Points
ASIC also went after the marketing. Several of the nine offered fee free or discounted trading, cash vouchers, cashback or airline reward points to get new clients dealing. The regulator's position is blunt: a sign up bonus has nothing to do with whether a leveraged option suits the person clicking the button, and it nudges people toward impulsive decisions. Commissioner Simone Constant kept it short: “The products are complex but the responsibilities are simple.”
Constant had a line for investors too: “If you do not understand how a product generates returns, or how your money is held, do not invest.” The scoreboard so far reads like this. Five of the nine improved their practices during the review, two paused options onboarding while they fix their processes, one provider left Australia altogether, and ASIC says further enforcement is on the table for the rest.
What This Means Beyond Australia
This is the same regulator that capped CFD leverage in 2021 and has spent years suspending licences over product governance. The playbook is now moving from CFDs to the next generation of retail products, and the brands in scope this time are global. Trading 212, Webull, Moomoo, Tiger and Interactive Brokers all run large operations in Europe and Asia under other licences. When ASIC documents a weakness in Sydney, supervisors at the FCA and CySEC read about it in London and Limassol the same week.
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ASIC Just Did in Public What Most Regulators Do in Private Letters.
It named all nine firms and described exactly how their onboarding fails, and that list includes some of the most downloaded trading apps in the world, not boiler rooms.
The era of growth hacking a brokerage with vouchers and airline points is closing, and platforms that treat suitability checks as a conversion funnel problem will keep meeting regulators in public.
Retail traders should read the review as a free due diligence report on their own broker.
About the Company
About Trading 212
Regulator
ASIC (Australia), FCA, CySEC
Jurisdiction
Australia | UK | EU
Action Type
Thematic review, public warning
Penalty
None yet | Further enforcement flagged
Trading 212 is a retail trading brand founded in Bulgaria in 2004 and now run from London, with FCA and CySEC regulated entities serving clients across the UK and Europe and an Australian arm, Trading 212 AU, that appeared in ASIC's review. The platform built its name on commission free stock dealing next to a CFD business and reports millions of client accounts. It was one of the nine providers examined, and ASIC did not announce a penalty against any individual firm in the review.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which brokers did ASIC review in 2026?
Interactive Brokers Australia, Moomoo Securities Australia, Sharesies Australia, Stakeshop, tastytrade Australia, Tiger Brokers, Totality Wealth, Trading 212 AU and Webull Securities Australia. The review covered March to June 2026.
What products is ASIC worried about?
Short dated exchange traded options, futures and fractional shares. The first two are leveraged, move fast and can lose more than the initial outlay, while fractional shares raise questions about ownership rights, costs and transferability that the reviewed disclosures often failed to answer.
Did ASIC fine any of the nine brokers?
No fines were announced with the review. Five firms improved their practices, two paused options onboarding to fix their processes, one left the Australian market, and ASIC has flagged possible enforcement against the remainder.
Is Trading 212 regulated in Australia?
Trading 212 AU appears in the review as one of the nine providers operating under ASIC supervision, so it sits inside the regulated system rather than offshore. The review still flagged industry wide gaps in onboarding and disclosure that apply across the group of nine. Compare regulated brokers in our Best Forex Brokers in 2026 ranking.
Editor's note & source: Factual points drawn from ASIC media release 26-193MR. No findings of fraud were made against any firm named in the review. This article is not investment advice. Last updated: 15 August 2026.