On 26 November 2025, the Federal Parliament introduced the Treasury Laws Amendment (Genetic Testing Protections in Life Insurance and Other Measures) Bill 2025 (the Bill).  Among other things, the Bill is aimed at supporting the participation of foreign financial services providers (FFSPs) in Australia.

General licensing requirement

A person who carries on a financial services business in Australia must hold an Australian financial services (AFS) licence covering the provision of the financial services (Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) (Corporations Act)). 

‘New’ exemptions

Schedule 2 to the Bill establishes three exemptions in the Corporations Actfrom the requirement to hold an AFS licence.  These are the:

professional investorapplicable to persons who provide financial services from outside Australia to professional investors;
comparable regulatorapplicable to partnerships and foreign companies providing financial services who are regulated by comparable regulators and whose clients in Australia are only wholesale clients; and
market makerapplicable to persons who provide financial services from outside Australia that involve making a market for derivatives that are able to be traded on a specified licenced market.

The Bill also fast-tracks the process for foreign financial services providers that apply for an AFS licence by exempting them from the fit and proper person test if they are authorised to provide financial services in a comparable overseas regulatory regime.

These reforms have been long awaited and were introduced by the previous Government as the Treasury Laws Amendment (Better Targeted Superannuation Concessions and Other Measures) Bill 2023 (Cth).

Importantly, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) currently has transitional relief instruments in place for FFSPs who provide services in Australia, colloquially known as the:

  • Limited Connection Relief (set to sunset on 31 March 2026); and
  • Sufficient Equivalence Relief (no longer available to new applicants, though individual relief may be sought based on the previous sufficient equivalence instruments).

While the new regime will ultimately replace the above relief, we expect that ASIC is likely to renew the application of these relief instruments until 31 March 2027 to allow a transition period in the implementation of the new licensing regime.

Please reach out to us if you would like further information on the reforms proposed by the Bill and how this may impact your current or future business operations in Australia.