The agenda, released last week on the parliamentary website, shows Mr Kelaher listed for an 11am interrogation. However, the man at the centre of some of the allegations, IOOF head of advice research Peter Hilton, is not listed to attend.
ASIC commissioner Greg Tanzer is expected to speak at 12:30pm and the corporate regulator has confirmed it is investigating IOOF.
Last week, the Senate called on at least two IOOF employees to go under parliamentary scrutiny tomorrow following allegations of front-running and insider trading at the financial services firm.
A spokesperson for Senator John Williams, who is convening the inquiry, said those who did not accept invitations would not be subject to a summons at this stage.
“It is up to the committee whether they would take the step of summonsing witnesses,” he said.
Senator Sam Dastyari, who is chairman of the Senate Economics Committee, told ifa the committee would decide tomorrow whether to elevate the invitations to formal summonses. If the witness still refuses to attend after being summonsed, it will be considered an offence.
“Tuesday’s hearing will give IOOF a chance to set the record straight and refute the allegations that have been made against staff, executives and board members,” Mr Dastyari told ifa.
“If the allegations are true, shareholders should be deeply concerned,” he added.
According to Fairfax Media, other invited representatives included IOOF chairman Roger Sexton and company secretary Danielle Corcoran. Fairfax also reported IOOF head of investigations Rob Urwin had agreed to participate, although he is not listed on tomorrow’s agenda.
The call for the interrogation comes after Nationals Senator John Williams delivered a speech about IOOF to the Senate on 24 June.
Senator Williams named Mr Hilton, who is also head of research at IOOF dealer group Bridges, as a “person who allegedly engaged in front-running when he conducted trades on at least 53 occasions over some 20 years”.
IOOF has thus far rebuffed claims that it had failed to notify the regulator of any misconduct.
So Mr Kelaher revealed in the committee hearing today that those not attending are overseas, otherwise they would have attended.
Oops. That little fact was ‘missed’ by the sensationalist media.
Funny that.
@ABCFP – A speaker at the industry super convention ?! – What a joke. This needs to be investigated and commented upon further.
Tip of the iceberg – I promise.
I note Tower Life Australia bought Bridges Investment for $168 million dollars. I note back in 2002 Tower lost $40 million dollars, the share price halved and the executives of Tower were very unhappy. The executives had to have new share packages rewritten.
The issue of buying Distribution companies that make little to nothing in regards to ROI has to be said.
It is noted that in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s that 4 major banks in Australia decided to buy Life Companies thus starting a Bancassurance model.
Wealth Management in Australia make $480million dollars net to $780 million dollars a year into the Banks coffers. The issue today of selling the Wealth Management companies noted in the AFR, is about capital restructuring. It must be said that some companies are capital intensive in the Life operations.
It can be seen that WBC holdings in BTIML is being sold to raise cash.
The release of capital can be used to pay debts in the UK or used in Bank Tier 1 Capital raising.
Kind regards,
Adrian Totolos.
Business Analyst.
I suggest Adele Ferguson and the ex employee who stole documents from IOOF be summonsed before the senate committee.
That person who stole the documentation is apparently a serial offender. Apparently has done it twice before with other employers. Documentation stolen was for internal risk management. Apparently Ms Ferguson is going to be a guest speaker at an industry super convention. Interesting isn’t it?
Good to see that IOOF is being investigated by ASIC.
There are a lot of problems in the industry, ASIC Chairman, Greg Medcraft has been a sleep at the wheel for a few years and the issues in the industry have festered. They now present themselves in varying degrees all around the industry.
Kind regards,
Adrian Totolos.
Business Analyst.