AU Financial Advisers API

Base URL: https://api.techcompass.com.au — ASIC Financial Advisers Register: 88,000+ advisers with KYC risk signals, banning orders, and disciplinary action history.

About this Dataset

The AU Financial Advisers API provides access to the ASIC Financial Advisers Register (FAR) — the authoritative public register of every person authorised to provide personal financial advice in Australia under an Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL).

ASIC Financial Advisers Register

The FAR is maintained by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) under the Corporations Act 2001. It covers 88,000+ current and historical advisers across all professions regulated under the AFSL regime: financial planners, stockbrokers, insurance advisers, and SMSF specialists.

For each adviser the register records: adviser number (ADV_NUMBER), full name, current employer (licensee name and ABN), registration status, registration dates, product authorisations across 40+ financial product categories, CPD failure history, qualifications, and the complete history of any disciplinary action taken by ASIC.

Disciplinary Actions and Banning Orders

The disciplinary action fields (adv_da_type, adv_da_description, adv_da_start_dt, adv_da_end_dt) capture all ASIC enforcement actions against each adviser: banning orders, licence conditions, enforceable undertakings, reprimands, and infringement notices. These directly support KYC workflows for client onboarding, staff background checks, and ongoing monitoring of authorised representatives under an AFSL.

KYC Risk Signals

The API generates an overall_risk signal (HIGH / MEDIUM / LOW) from the disciplinary action type and current registration status. HIGH is assigned where ASIC has issued a banning order or the adviser is in external administration. This enables automated pre-screening without manual record review for the majority of lookups.

Dataset Currency

ASIC publishes an updated FAR CSV periodically (approximately monthly). The Tech Compass pipeline checks for new releases weekly (Thursday 00:00 UTC) and ingests any updated dataset within 24 hours of ASIC publication. The data_lineage.snapshot_date field on every response identifies the ASIC publication date of the underlying data.

Licensing

ASIC Financial Advisers Register data is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia (CC BY 3.0 AU). The required attribution string is included in data_lineage.attribution on every response.

Authentication

All endpoints require an API key in the Authorization header:

Authorization: ApiKey tc_live_<your_key>

Obtain a key at signup. The AU Financial Advisers API is served from the Australia region (australia-southeast1) — data never leaves Australian infrastructure.

Tiers

Common Response Structure

{
  "data": { ... },
  "meta": {
    "request_id": "f6a7b8c9-...",
    "cached": false,
    "timestamp": "2026-05-10T07:00:00Z"
  },
  "data_lineage": {
    "source": "ASIC Financial Advisers Register",
    "source_url": "https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/asic-financial-advisers",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-05-10T07:00:00Z",
    "request_id": "f6a7b8c9-...",
    "licence": "CC BY 3.0 AU",
    "attribution": "© Australian Securities & Investments Commission. Licensed under CC BY 3.0 AU.",
    "snapshot_date": "2026-05-01"
  },
  "kyc": {
    "overall_risk": "LOW",
    "flags": []
  }
}

KYC Signal Reference

Every adviser response includes a kyc block with overall_risk and flags. Apply the v1 ruleset to automate screening decisions.

Snapshot Date

The ASIC Financial Advisers Register is published periodically by ASIC (approximately monthly). The data_lineage.snapshot_date field reflects the ASIC publication date of the underlying dataset — not the API call time.

Attribution Requirement (CC BY 3.0 AU)

Known Limitations

• Pipeline frequency: The Tech Compass pipeline checks for new data weekly (Thursday 00:00 UTC). ASIC typically publishes new FAR snapshots approximately monthly — recent banning orders or licence conditions may not appear until the next ASIC publication.
• ADV_NUMBER format: Adviser numbers are 9-digit zero-padded strings (e.g. 000222780). The API accepts non-padded inputs and normalises automatically.
• Ceased advisers: The register includes both current and ceased advisers. Filter by overall_registration_status = "Registered" in the search endpoint if you only want active advisers.
• Action timing: A disciplinary action becomes visible in the dataset at ASIC's next publication. Between publication dates there is a potential gap.

Error Reference

Endpoints

GET /v1/au/advisers/{adv_number}

Return a single adviser by ADV_NUMBER. Accepts 6-9 digit input — zero-padding applied automatically. Returns full record including all registration fields, disciplinary action details, qualifications, and KYC signals.

curl "https://api.techcompass.com.au/v1/au/advisers/222780" \
  -H "Authorization: ApiKey tc_live_<your_key>"

{
  "data": {
    "adv_number": "000222780",
    "adv_name": "Jane Smith",
    "adv_role_status": "Current",
    "adv_abn": "12 345 678 901",
    "overall_registration_status": "Registered",
    "registration_status_under_afsl": "Registered",
    "licence_name": "Example Financial Services Pty Ltd",
    "licence_number": "123456",
    "licence_abn": "98 765 432 109",
    "licence_controlled_by": "Example Holdings Pty Ltd",
    "adv_start_dt": "2015-03-01",
    "adv_end_dt": null,
    "adv_add_state": "NSW",
    "adv_add_pcode": "2000",
    "adv_da_type": null,
    "adv_da_description": null,
    "adv_cpd_failure_year": null,
    "adv_first_provided_advice": "2015-03-01",
    "qualifications_and_training": "Bachelor of Business (Finance)",
    "memberships": "FPA",
    "further_restrictions": null,
    "snapshot_date": "2026-05-01"
  },
  "meta": { "request_id": "f6a7b8c9-..." },
  "data_lineage": {
    "source": "ASIC Financial Advisers Register",
    "source_url": "https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/asic-financial-advisers",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-05-10T07:00:00Z",
    "request_id": "f6a7b8c9-...",
    "licence": "CC BY 3.0 AU",
    "attribution": "© Australian Securities & Investments Commission. Licensed under CC BY 3.0 AU.",
    "snapshot_date": "2026-05-01"
  },
  "kyc": {
    "overall_risk": "LOW",
    "flags": []
  }
}

Errors: 401, 403, 404, 429

GET /v1/au/advisers/search

Search advisers by name. Returns up to 200 results with KYC signals on each result. Supports optional status filtering.

curl "https://api.techcompass.com.au/v1/au/advisers/search?q=Smith&status=registered&limit=10" \
  -H "Authorization: ApiKey tc_live_<your_key>"

{
  "data": {
    "query": "Smith",
    "count": 10,
    "results": [
      {
        "adv_number": "000222780",
        "adv_name": "Jane Smith",
        "overall_registration_status": "Registered",
        "licence_name": "Example Financial Services Pty Ltd",
        "adv_da_type": null,
        "snapshot_date": "2026-05-01",
        "kyc": { "overall_risk": "LOW", "flags": [] }
      }
    ]
  },
  "meta": { "request_id": "a7b8c9d0-..." },
  "data_lineage": { ... }
}

Errors: 400, 401, 403, 429

GET /v1/au/advisers/licence/{licence_number}

Return all advisers registered under a specific AFS licence number. Returns up to 1,000 results. Useful for reviewing the full representative roster of a licensee.

curl "https://api.techcompass.com.au/v1/au/advisers/licence/123456" \
  -H "Authorization: ApiKey tc_live_<your_key>"

{
  "data": {
    "licence_number": "123456",
    "count": 45,
    "results": [ ... ]
  },
  "meta": { "request_id": "b8c9d0e1-..." },
  "data_lineage": { ... }
}

Errors: 401, 403, 429

Common Use Cases

1. Pre-engagement adviser background check

Who uses this: Institutions, platforms, and individuals verifying an adviser's registration status before engaging their services.

curl "https://api.techcompass.com.au/v1/au/advisers/222780" \
  -H "Authorization: ApiKey YOUR_API_KEY"

2. Checking an AFSL licensee's representative roster

Who uses this: Compliance officers reviewing whether a licensee has prohibited or disciplined representatives, platform operators assessing distribution partners.

curl "https://api.techcompass.com.au/v1/au/advisers/licence/123456" \
  -H "Authorization: ApiKey YOUR_API_KEY"

3. Name-based search for due diligence

Who uses this: Compliance and legal teams performing background checks on named individuals in financial services roles.

curl "https://api.techcompass.com.au/v1/au/advisers/search?q=John+Williams&status=prohibited" \
  -H "Authorization: ApiKey YOUR_API_KEY"

Data Source