ASIC expands in Darwin after Indigenous banking fee investigation exposes remote harm

The corporate watchdog ASIC has opened a new office in Darwin, marking a significant expansion of its Northern Territory presence after investigations found many remote First Nations banking customers had been left in high-fee accounts they could not afford. The move matters because it signals a more visible regulatory response in a jurisdiction where distance, digital exclusion and shrinking branch networks have compounded financial disadvantage.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission said the Darwin office would strengthen its ability to oversee banks and other financial institutions operating in regional and remote communities. According to ABC reporting, ASIC had operated with just one NT employee between 2015 and 2025. Around 10 staff now work from the new Darwin office. Outgoing ASIC chair Joe Longo said the change was one of the most important decisions of his tenure, saying: “I think one of the most important things I’ve done is to do this — I felt it was just unacceptable that we had one person here.”

The timing is tied closely to ASIC’s “Better banking for Indigenous consumers” work. The regulator’s 2024 report focused on fee harm affecting low-income customers, including First Nations consumers, and the 2025 follow-up widened the picture, showing the issue extended far beyond the initial sample. ABC News reported that more than 150,000 customers had paid about $6 million in transaction fees they would not have incurred if they had been moved into low-fee accounts they were eligible for. ASIC’s broader 2025 review later said more than $93 million would be refunded to low-income customers nationally.

Central Australia emerged as a key concern in the original work, and the NT context helps explain why. In many remote communities, people already face limited banking options, patchy internet access, lower digital confidence, and long travel distances to the nearest branch. Longo said digital-only service delivery can create added risk in remote settings, where online interaction is not always a realistic substitute for face-to-face support. That concern has only sharpened in recent years as physical banking access has narrowed, including after controversial branch closures in places such as Tennant Creek.

The new Darwin office will not, on its own, solve those structural problems. But it gives ASIC a stronger on-the-ground base in a part of Australia where the consequences of poor product design, weak consumer support and limited oversight can be especially severe. For First Nations customers in remote and regional communities, the expansion is being read as a sign that banking harm in the north can no longer be treated as peripheral to the national financial system.