While Mr Crennan offered and agreed to repay the rental allowance ASIC had paid to him, he has now resigned following the launch of an independent review into his and chairman James Shipton’s relocation costs.
“I had been intending to retire from my position in July 2021,” Mr Crennan said.
“However, in the current circumstances, I have decided that it is in the best interests of ASIC for me to resign now. I have therefore tendered my resignation to the Treasurer with immediate effect.”
Mr Crennan will remain available to facilitate the “orderly transfer” of work to his successor. Mr Shipton has also stepped aside pending the results of the investigation.
Sounds like a good catalyst to combine ASIC and the TPB’s adviser supervision roles with FASEA and AFCA and create a single monitoring body???
How would Standard 11 of the FASEA Code apply in this case?
ASIC is corrupt.
Evidence is now starting to come out.
Hopefully public scrutiny of their hidden ‘gifts register’ will be next, although I can imagine many items would never have even been recorded.
One counterpoint here is that it seems like perhaps Crennan was kind of dudded by ASIC here too.
I mean, obviously it’s not the same as the hatchet job they’ve done on advisers given he was in the tent, but:
– He took the job, then got told to move his family to Sydney a few months later
– He was told by the bean counters that the rental payments were within standard policy.
– When he was told that wasn’t the case (and can’t we all sympathise with somebody getting told contradictory information from this group?) he stopped it and started paying it back.
So the story goes, anyway, and this story has a whole lot more to run.
But there seems to be a narrative where an outsider tried to tangle with this toxically inept culture and came off second best.
To paraphrase Buffett: When a person with a reputation for competence tackles an agency with a reputation for incompetence, it is the reputation of the agency that remains intact.
He seems quite honest and competent. Must have been lonely at ASIC!
So act unethically but just repay the dodgy funds and resign and its all good. I haven’t seen any small advisers given that choice??
Adviser note: These guys preach to our industry about code of ethics
Good point
Do advisers get to apologise, offer to repay the money they stole and then retire? Shipton and Crennan need to be prosecuted, fined or jailed and banned permanently from working in financial services. Considering they are held to a higher standard (Shipton’s words) anything less is a joke.
That’s a little more than $300…..
Why not make it mandatory for ASIC staff and Board members to pass the FASEA ethics course as advisers have to do?. My concern is not about what they have done but are they competent to make ethical decisions in the best interests of Australia if they can’t see that there is a major problem here. It is all about public perception and doesn’t pass any pub test.
Under Crennan’s reign ASIC banned a financial planner for no reason other than he derived income directly and not through his AFSL, as required by their contract. ASIC declared this poor bugger to not be a fit and proper person and professionally tarred and feathered him for life.
What steps do readers think ASIC will take here?
Your thoughts please/
ASIC will do absolutely nothing. Apparently they have sat on this issue already for a month, and while Crennan has resigned, Shipton hasn’t. He knows once the headlines die down he can come back to his $700k plus salary. It will take pressure from outside of ASIC for anything to happen. If this was an adviser there would be criminal proceedings, so the obvious question is why isn’t this going to be the case for Shipton and Crennan too?
Just read in today’s Age Shipton wanted ASIC to run the ASIC review. Frydenberg said no.
Does Shipton not understand basic ethics? Shipton gets caught rorting his expenses at a cost to the government of more than $200,000 (including FBT) and he wants to investigate himself. Can’t possibly think what the ASIC review would have concluded… can you? I mean, what could go wrong?
Why would ASIC want to control the review? ASIC is obviously hiding a lot. Is this just the tip of an expense rorting iceberg?
Correct, and they didn’t even fess up it was the audit office that dropped them in the pile of doodoo.
Is ASIC is corrupt? Yes, little Johnny, yes it is.
Check that gift register!
“I had been intending to retire from my position in July 2021” Achieved nothing and was running out the door with bag full of cash. Little did we know quite how big.
Who watches the watchdog?
Shipton is following in Kell and Medcraft’s footsteps, shifty mongrel acts all part of their ways.
Oh dear