Latest regulatory crackdown in private credit space targets Tasmania-based mortgage manager
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has frozen new investment in a Tasmanian mortgage fund worth more than half a billion dollars by issuing an interim stop order against the fund’s product disclosure statement (PDS).
A PDS sets out a fund’s financial product’s features, fees and risks for investors. According to the ASIC media release, the order prevents Murdoch Clarke Mortgage Management from offering, issuing, selling or transferring interests in the Murdoch Clarke Mortgage Fund.
The fund held $573.2 million in net assets under management at 30 June 2026. It invests mostly in interest-only loans with principal repayable on demand, secured by mortgages over vacant or developed land in Tasmania.
ASIC raised four concerns about the PDS. The regulator said it does not disclose related party transactions, does not adequately set out the fund’s fees and costs, gives too little information about risks and presents that information unclearly, and does not adequately or prominently explain how withdrawals work.
ASIC Commissioner Simone Constant tied the action to the regulator’s wider sector review. She said findings from ASIC’s second private credit surveillance would be published soon, but that “it’s already clear that practices are not where we need them to be.”
ASIC said it may make a final order if its concerns are not addressed promptly. Murdoch Clarke can make submissions before any final decision is made.
A private credit crackdown more than a year in the making
The order is the latest step in a long-running campaign. our coverage of ASIC’s landmark private credit fund review, MPA reported in late 2025 that the regulator examined 28 funds between October 2024 and August 2025. It found that funds reported low default rates of 0–6 per cent while defining “default” inconsistently, that only a minority disclosed the rates charged to borrowers, and that fewer than half had detailed credit or impairment policies.
Enforcement followed. In September 2025, ASIC issued interim stop orders against three La Trobe Financial products, its first enforcement action against private credit funds after its retail surveillance program. All three were revoked once La Trobe amended its target market determinations, which included cutting the recommended allocation to its US Private Credit Fund from 35 per cent to 10 per cent. RELI Capital Mortgage and TruePillars Investment Trust were also hit with stop orders in the same period.
The pressure increased in June 2026, when ASIC issued a private credit valuation warning, an eight-week voluntary survey covered 22 managers, 52 funds and approximately $76 billion in assets under management. In that warning, ASIC said that “poor practices in private credit remain a 2026 enforcement priority”.
The Murdoch Clarke order came out of ASIC’s surveillance of how private credit funds are distributed to retail clients through direct and advised channels. That work also covers fees, margin structures and conflict-of-interest management in wholesale funds.
