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How Many ARs Make a Broking Network? Sample

Draw the line at five and 99 of 211 GI broker licensees qualify — but those 99 hold 95.8% of every matched AR entity on the register. The threshold decides the label far more than it decides the population.

211 GI BROKER LICENSEES · 5,806 MATCHED ENTITIES · CURRENT AT 1 JUL 2026

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Key findings01 / 03

Where the line falls, and what it captures

5 FINDINGS

There is no regulatory definition of a broking network. Pick a threshold, and the register tells you what it captures.

Five ARs splits the licensee list nearly in half, and the AR population barely at all. Of 211 reviewed GI broker licensees, 99 hold five or more matched entities and 112 hold one to four. The 99 account for 5,563 of 5,806 matched entities — 95.8%. The other 112 licensees share 243 between them.
The top 10 licensees hold 70% of the population. Ten licensees out of 211 account for 4,065 matched entities, and the largest holds 1,150 on its own — more than four times the entire 1–4 band combined.
The median licensee holds four. Ranked largest to smallest, the curve falls off a cliff inside the first ten places and then runs close to flat for two hundred. At the median, the distance between "network" and "not a network" is a single appointment.
Networks grew while the small-licensee middle shrank. Over the reliable three-year window, licensees at 5+ grew 11% while those at 1–4 fell 4%. Across the same window 29 licensees crossed the threshold upward — some by building a book, some by re-papering one that already existed.
The threshold is a label, not a verdict on the business. A licensee with four authorised representatives is no less a real broking business than one with five. Five earns its place because it is where the concentration becomes visible, not because anything changes at the fifth appointment.

The charts02 / 03

Split diagram of 211 reviewed GI broker licensees. 112 licensees sit outside the network lens with 1 to 4 matched entities, holding 243 matched current entities in total (4.2%) — 109 individual ARs and 134 CARs. 99 licensees meet the 5+ threshold and are counted as networks, holding 5,563 matched current entities (95.8%) — 3,769 individual ARs and 1,794 CARs. — FIG 01 · THE 5+ THRESHOLD, BOTH SIDES 211 LICENSEES · CURRENT AT 1 JUL 2026

Curve of matched current entities against licensees ranked largest to smallest, 1 to 211. The largest licensee holds 1,150 entities; the curve collapses within the first ten ranks, where the top 10 account for 4,065 entities or 70% of the population, and then runs nearly flat. A marker at rank 100 shows where the 99 networks end, and the median licensee holds four entities. — FIG 02 · MATCHED ENTITIES BY LICENSEE RANK LARGEST TO SMALLEST · 211 LICENSEES

Stacked area chart of GI broker licensees by size band, monthly from July 2016 to July 2026. Total licensees rise from 449 to 625. Networks holding 5 or more matched entities go from 70 to 99, licensees with 1 to 4 entities go from 115 to 112, and licensees with no matched ARs go from 264 to 414. A shaded band marks the reliable three-year window from 2023, over which networks grew 11% and the 1 to 4 band fell 4%. — FIG 03 · LICENSEE COUNT BY SIZE BAND MONTHLY · JUL 2016 → JUL 2026

Source & method03 / 03

Data notes

Source: ASIC AFS Licensee and Authorised Representative registers (data.gov.au), current at 1 July 2026. The population is matched current AR entities — individual ARs and corporate ARs — at GI broker AFSLs. Each entity is assigned once, to the licensee holding its most recent current appointment, so the same person or business is never counted at two licensees; that assignment is what produces 5,806 entities across 211 active licensees. "Network" means five or more matched current entities: a reporting convention for this analysis, not a regulatory category. Person versus business is inferred from the registered name. The ten-year series carries a heavier caveat than the rest — earlier counts are upper estimates reconstructed from the surviving register, and the no-matched-AR group is less fully filtered, so only the most recent three years are treated as reliable, and that window is marked on the chart. Whether the picture holds at a threshold of ten rather than five has not yet been tested.

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The full service breaks the register down the way this page breaks down the 5+ line: size bands month by month, concentration curves, threshold sensitivity, and which licensees crossed which line and when. Aggregate views for market work, named detail where you have a legitimate interest. Refreshed with every ASIC register release.

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