Record $300.2 million in CFD penalties, and the two firms profited when clients lost

Australia's largest set of financial services penalties is usually quoted as a single figure: $300 million. The orders are three, they are unequal, and the conduct behind each is different.

The Federal Court ordered Union Standard International Group Pty Ltd to pay $156.7 million, Maxi EFX Global AU Pty Ltd, which traded as EuropeFX, to pay $114.1 million, and BrightAU Capital Pty Ltd, which traded as TradeFred, to pay $29.4 million. The total is $300.2 million. ASIC announced the orders on 12 June 2026. The penalties were fixed by Justice Michael Wigney, who had found liability more than a year earlier, in a judgment delivered on 20 December 2024.

Union Standard held the Australian financial services licence. EuropeFX and TradeFred were its authorised representatives. The court found that between 2018 and 2020 EuropeFX and TradeFred engaged in unconscionable systems of conduct under section 12CB of the ASIC Act, made false or misleading representations, and provided personal financial advice without authorisation. Customers of the two representatives lost more than $83 million.

The mechanism is the part that is usually left out. The firms took the opposite side of their customers' trades, so a customer's loss was the firm's revenue. ASIC states that EuropeFX and TradeFred profited from customer losses in up to 95 to 99 per cent of cases. Account managers were paid in ways that rewarded pressing clients to deposit more. The targets, on ASIC's account, were inexperienced and financially vulnerable people.

The finding against Union Standard itself is separate and, on ASIC's characterisation, a first. Union Standard marketed and issued contracts for difference and margin foreign exchange to customers in China while knowing that those customers risked breaching Chinese law, and failed to warn them of that exposure. ASIC says this is the first civil penalty imposed on an entity for failing to provide financial services efficiently, honestly and fairly by marketing such products into China. Deputy chair Sarah Court said the outcome sets a precedent for Australian licensees serving overseas customers.

Justice Wigney's language was unusually blunt. He described the conduct as unquestionably egregious, deliberate and flagrant, and said he found it difficult to envisage a more serious case of contravening conduct, warranting the strongest deterrence. The court also permanently restrained EuropeFX from carrying on a financial services business, ordered it to refund customers, and made an adverse publicity order against it. ASIC has said the orders were stayed until 13 July 2026.

The difficulty sits underneath all of it. None of the three entities is trading. TradeFred went into liquidation on 10 March 2020, before the proceeding was even filed. Union Standard entered voluntary administration on 8 July 2020, had its licence suspended that month and cancelled in September 2020, and had liquidators appointed on 3 September 2020. ASIC commenced the proceeding in December 2020, against companies that had already collapsed.

A pecuniary penalty is a debt owed to the Commonwealth, and it ranks alongside other unsecured claims in a liquidation. Nothing in ASIC's announcement states how much of the $300.2 million is expected to be paid, or what assets the liquidators hold. The refund order against EuropeFX is a separate remedy, and no figure has been published for how much has been returned to customers under it, or how many customers have received anything.

So the record is real as an order and unproven as a recovery. It is the largest penalty ASIC has obtained, and it is owed by a licensee in liquidation and two representatives in the same condition. ASIC's own year end figures put the total value of penalties it secured in 2025-26 at $830 million, which means this one file is more than a third of the annual number.

What is not yet known is the collected amount. ASIC publishes penalties ordered. It does not publish, case by case, penalties received.