From January to June 2021, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) aided the courts in imposing $29.6 million in civil penalties and in prosecuting 133 people or companies for strict liability offences, the corporate regulator’s first-half Enforcement Update revealed.
According to the document, published on Thursday, ASIC removed or restricted 70 people from providing financial services or credit, while 19 people were disqualified or removed as directors of companies.
In regard to financial services, ASIC concluded 50 financial services enforcement matters to 30 June, while 26 criminal and 18 civil financial services-related matters remained before the courts on 1 July.
Ten of the 50 cases were linked to financial advice misconduct, while five pertained to wrongdoings in investment management and two to superannuation misconduct.
Overall, between January and June 2021, ASIC recorded the following enforcement outcomes:
- $29.6 million in civil penalties imposed by the courts;
- 133 people or companies prosecuted for strict liability offences;
- 70 people or entities removed or restricted from providing financial services or credit;
- 19 people disqualified or removed as directors of companies;
- Five people imprisoned and five more given non-custodial sentences;
- Three infringement notices issued;
- One court enforceable undertaking accepted by ASIC.
ASIC confirmed it commenced 12 civil penalty proceedings during the period and commenced court action targeting misconduct in insurance, superannuation, markets, auditing and credit.
One wonders how many banned from the industry of providing financial services actually harmed (or even could have) clients.
Was Mr Shipton and Mr Crenan who stole money from the public purse, counted in these numbers? Oh that’s right, despite being held to a higher standard, they got off scott free.
So 20% were financial advisers, yet all they talk about is how bad the financial advisers are.
How about they start by changing the narrative that most of the misconduct is due to the executives of these AFSLs.
Ahh that’s nice of them, I wonder how many Industry Super fund financial planners were prosecuted then evicted from the industry? My guess is ZERO.
Im not one, but pray tell, why would Industry Super fund financial planners be prosecuted? They are after all just following the lead of the big insto’s where they have a APL that only includes their own products. This is why ASIC needs to separate advice from products.
No conflicts with any Advice from Industry Super – they only sell the in-house product it seems?
I read an SOA from an industry super fund planner yesterday. They work off an APL, which happens to be one product. Client was happy because there was no fee or at least the cost was covered by other members of the fund. Interestingly the SOA was also only about 9 pages and would have resulted in ASIC taking action against me there were that many gaps in it.
Send the SOA doc to ASIC….