ASIC suspended the licence of Financial Options until 26 February 2020 for not meeting its obligations as a licensee, according to a statement.
Before the suspension, Financial Options had held its licence since 1 March 2004.
ASIC said Financial Options did not lodge its accounts and audit report for the year ending 30 June 2018, failed to have a dispute resolution system in place, and did not maintain organisational competence or the resources required to provide the financial services covered by its licence.
It said that, upon receiving a notice of hearing, Financial Options applied for membership with the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) scheme that took effect from 31 May 2019.
The suspension period will allow Financial Options to lodge its outstanding financial reports and do all things necessary to address ASIC’s outstanding concerns in relation to financial reporting obligations, organisational competence, human resources and compliance requirements, ASIC said.
Further, it said it will consider cancelling the licence if Financial Options cannot demonstrate that it is able to comply with the obligations at the end of the suspension period.
“ASIC expects AFS licensees to do all things necessary to meet their obligations under financial services law, comply with their licence conditions and ensure that they are able to provide financial services efficiently, honestly and fairly,” ASIC said.
ASIC’s own estimate across the industry is $9 billion with the bulk belonging to you know who. That is nine thousand million dollars and counting folks. Incomprehensible. In the meantime, these same inept, incompetent alleged criminals continue to make the rules. Incomprehensible again.
So the firm has it’s AFSL suspended for not lodging it’s financials or for signing up with the brand new complaints body. Yet AMP and CBA have not had their license suspended for 1 minute and you can lie to ASIC 22 times and steel millions from Australians from poor advice and the only thing you get from ASIC is a nasty letter asking to undertake some changes. When you compare the actions of the regulator and the corresponding fines imposed there appears some very inconsistent penalties imposed. I don’t want to lobby an accusation that most ASIC staff end up working for the like of AMP and would highly unlikely be working for a small licensee but one does wonder what’s going on here.