Mortgage brokers: professional indemnity requirements in Australia

Cover for legal liability arising from professional advice or services, written on a claims-made basis.

Data as at 2026-08-25

Verified requirements, by state

Licence liability condition: Yes, in substance. The National Credit Act requires a licensee to have "adequate arrangements in place for compensating your consumers for any loss they might suffer" if the licensee breaches its obligations. ASIC's position is that "for most applicants, the way to comply with this obligation is to have adequate professional indemnity (PI) insurance cover" — so the statute requires compensation arrangements and PI insurance is the ordinary means of meeting them, rather than PI being named in the Act itself. NSW · effective 2010-07-01 ASIC · 2026-08-24
Licence evidence required: At licence application. ASIC must confirm adequate PI insurance is held where it is required, and asks the applicant to provide a certificate of currency — a summary of the policy obtained from the insurer or broker. The compensation obligation then continues for as long as the licence is held. NSW · effective 2010-07-01 ASIC · 2026-08-24
Licensing body: ASIC — and this is a FEDERAL requirement, not a New South Wales one. Credit activity is licensed nationally under the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 (Cth); the credential is an Australian credit licence, or authorisation as a credit representative of a licensee. NSW has no separate mortgage broker licence. NSW · effective 2010-07-01 ASIC · 2026-08-24
Licence liability condition: Yes, in substance. The National Credit Act requires a licensee to have "adequate arrangements in place for compensating your consumers for any loss they might suffer" if it breaches its obligations, and ASIC's position is that "for most applicants, the way to comply with this obligation is to have adequate professional indemnity (PI) insurance cover". The statute requires compensation arrangements; PI insurance is the ordinary means of meeting them. VIC · effective 2010-07-01 ASIC · 2026-08-24
Licence evidence required: At licence application. ASIC must confirm adequate PI insurance is held where required, and asks for a certificate of currency — a summary of the policy from the insurer or broker. The compensation obligation continues for as long as the licence is held. VIC · effective 2010-07-01 ASIC · 2026-08-24
Licensing body: ASIC, under the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 (Cth) — FEDERAL law, so there is no VIC mortgage broker licence and none is needed. The credential is an Australian credit licence, or authorisation as a credit representative of a licensee, and it operates in Victoria on the same terms as everywhere else. VIC · effective 2010-07-01 ASIC · 2026-08-24
Licence liability condition: Yes, in substance. The National Credit Act requires a licensee to have "adequate arrangements in place for compensating your consumers for any loss they might suffer" if it breaches its obligations, and ASIC's position is that "for most applicants, the way to comply with this obligation is to have adequate professional indemnity (PI) insurance cover". The statute requires compensation arrangements; PI insurance is the ordinary means of meeting them. QLD · effective 2010-07-01 ASIC · 2026-08-24
Licence evidence required: At licence application. ASIC must confirm adequate PI insurance is held where required, and asks for a certificate of currency — a summary of the policy from the insurer or broker. The compensation obligation continues for as long as the licence is held. QLD · effective 2010-07-01 ASIC · 2026-08-24
Licensing body: ASIC, under the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 (Cth) — FEDERAL law, so there is no QLD mortgage broker licence and none is needed. The credential is an Australian credit licence, or authorisation as a credit representative of a licensee, and it operates in Queensland on the same terms as everywhere else. QLD · effective 2010-07-01 ASIC · 2026-08-24
Licence liability condition: Yes, in substance. The National Credit Act requires a licensee to have "adequate arrangements in place for compensating your consumers for any loss they might suffer" if it breaches its obligations, and ASIC's position is that "for most applicants, the way to comply with this obligation is to have adequate professional indemnity (PI) insurance cover". The statute requires compensation arrangements; PI insurance is the ordinary means of meeting them. WA · effective 2010-07-01 ASIC · 2026-08-24
Licence evidence required: At licence application. ASIC must confirm adequate PI insurance is held where required, and asks for a certificate of currency — a summary of the policy from the insurer or broker. The compensation obligation continues for as long as the licence is held. WA · effective 2010-07-01 ASIC · 2026-08-24
Licensing body: ASIC, under the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 (Cth) — FEDERAL law, so there is no WA mortgage broker licence and none is needed. The credential is an Australian credit licence, or authorisation as a credit representative of a licensee, and it operates in Western Australia on the same terms as everywhere else. WA · effective 2010-07-01 ASIC · 2026-08-24
Licence liability condition: Yes, in substance. The National Credit Act requires a licensee to have "adequate arrangements in place for compensating your consumers for any loss they might suffer" if it breaches its obligations, and ASIC's position is that "for most applicants, the way to comply with this obligation is to have adequate professional indemnity (PI) insurance cover". The statute requires compensation arrangements; PI insurance is the ordinary means of meeting them. SA · effective 2010-07-01 ASIC · 2026-08-24
Licence evidence required: At licence application. ASIC must confirm adequate PI insurance is held where required, and asks for a certificate of currency — a summary of the policy from the insurer or broker. The compensation obligation continues for as long as the licence is held. SA · effective 2010-07-01 ASIC · 2026-08-24
Licensing body: ASIC, under the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 (Cth) — FEDERAL law, so there is no SA mortgage broker licence and none is needed. The credential is an Australian credit licence, or authorisation as a credit representative of a licensee, and it operates in South Australia on the same terms as everywhere else. SA · effective 2010-07-01 ASIC · 2026-08-24
Licence liability condition: Yes, in substance. The National Credit Act requires a licensee to have "adequate arrangements in place for compensating your consumers for any loss they might suffer" if it breaches its obligations, and ASIC's position is that "for most applicants, the way to comply with this obligation is to have adequate professional indemnity (PI) insurance cover". The statute requires compensation arrangements; PI insurance is the ordinary means of meeting them. TAS · effective 2010-07-01 ASIC · 2026-08-24
Licence evidence required: At licence application. ASIC must confirm adequate PI insurance is held where required, and asks for a certificate of currency — a summary of the policy from the insurer or broker. The compensation obligation continues for as long as the licence is held. TAS · effective 2010-07-01 ASIC · 2026-08-24
Licensing body: ASIC, under the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 (Cth) — FEDERAL law, so there is no TAS mortgage broker licence and none is needed. The credential is an Australian credit licence, or authorisation as a credit representative of a licensee, and it operates in Tasmania on the same terms as everywhere else. TAS · effective 2010-07-01 ASIC · 2026-08-24
Licence liability condition: Yes, in substance. The National Credit Act requires a licensee to have "adequate arrangements in place for compensating your consumers for any loss they might suffer" if it breaches its obligations, and ASIC's position is that "for most applicants, the way to comply with this obligation is to have adequate professional indemnity (PI) insurance cover". The statute requires compensation arrangements; PI insurance is the ordinary means of meeting them. ACT · effective 2010-07-01 ASIC · 2026-08-24
Licence evidence required: At licence application. ASIC must confirm adequate PI insurance is held where required, and asks for a certificate of currency — a summary of the policy from the insurer or broker. The compensation obligation continues for as long as the licence is held. ACT · effective 2010-07-01 ASIC · 2026-08-24
Licensing body: ASIC, under the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 (Cth) — FEDERAL law, so there is no ACT mortgage broker licence and none is needed. The credential is an Australian credit licence, or authorisation as a credit representative of a licensee, and it operates in the Australian Capital Territory on the same terms as everywhere else. ACT · effective 2010-07-01 ASIC · 2026-08-24
Licence liability condition: Yes, in substance. The National Credit Act requires a licensee to have "adequate arrangements in place for compensating your consumers for any loss they might suffer" if it breaches its obligations, and ASIC's position is that "for most applicants, the way to comply with this obligation is to have adequate professional indemnity (PI) insurance cover". The statute requires compensation arrangements; PI insurance is the ordinary means of meeting them. NT · effective 2010-07-01 ASIC · 2026-08-24
Licence evidence required: At licence application. ASIC must confirm adequate PI insurance is held where required, and asks for a certificate of currency — a summary of the policy from the insurer or broker. The compensation obligation continues for as long as the licence is held. NT · effective 2010-07-01 ASIC · 2026-08-24
Licensing body: ASIC, under the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 (Cth) — FEDERAL law, so there is no NT mortgage broker licence and none is needed. The credential is an Australian credit licence, or authorisation as a credit representative of a licensee, and it operates in the Northern Territory on the same terms as everywhere else. NT · effective 2010-07-01 ASIC · 2026-08-24

By state and territory

Licensing is a state matter, so the requirement behind this cover changes at the border. These pages track the licence question in each jurisdiction.

What contracts commonly ask for

Principals and head contractors set their own insurance requirements, and those are frequently higher than a licence condition. The requirement that binds is the higher of the two, and both have to be read from the actual document.

What this cover costs

This site publishes no cost benchmark for this cover. A benchmark needs a real sample of documents, and none is published until the sample is large enough to compute a median honestly. A benchmark from a handful of policies is a guess with a decimal point.

Sources

ASIC — Australian Securities and Investments Commission