ASIC has published an updated Regulatory Guide 234 covering the advertising of financial products, advice, and credit, folding in past-performance guidance and adding fresh enforcement examples including greenwashing. Anyone who promotes or publishes financial advertising is now held to a sharper standard, with headline claims and fee disclosures in the spotlight.
A disclaimer at the bottom does not fix a claim that misleads at the top. ASIC just made that clearer.
ASIC has updated the rulebook for advertising financial products. On 9 June 2026 the regulator published a revised Regulatory Guide 234, covering the advertising of financial products, financial advice, credit products and credit services. If you promote or publish ads for any of those, this is now the guide you are held to.
The update folds guidance on past performance from the old RG 53 into one place and withdraws RG 53 entirely, so the advertising rules now sit in a single document. It adds fresh examples drawn from ASIC's enforcement action since the original guide, including Example 12, which sets out the regulator's move against misleading greenwashing claims.
Two changes matter most for anyone writing the copy. ASIC expanded its guidance on the difference between a warning required by law and a general disclaimer bolted onto a headline claim. It also added examples of the fees that must be shown when an ad refers to them.
Why it matters
Financial services is one of the biggest advertising categories in the country, spanning banks, insurers, super funds, buy now pay later and brokers. The greenwashing focus is the signal to read. Regulators globally have moved from warning about vague sustainability claims to acting on them, and ASIC has now put its enforcement examples in the guide itself. If your headline makes a claim your fine print quietly walks back, that is exactly the pattern the update targets.
ASIC published its updated RG 234 on advertising financial products on 9 June 2026, consolidating past-performance guidance and adding greenwashing examples. Source: ASIC.
What to do about it
Read the guide if you touch financial advertising. This is the standard you will be measured against, and ignorance is not a defence.
Audit your headline claims. A disclaimer cannot rescue a headline that misleads on its own. Fix the claim, not the footnote.
Get your fee disclosures right. If an ad mentions a fee, the update spells out what else has to appear with it.
Treat sustainability claims as high risk. Greenwashing is now an enforcement example, not a grey area. Substantiate every green claim before it runs.
The rules for selling financial products just got sharper and more specific. The teams that read them now will not be the ones explaining themselves to ASIC later.