Walter Yaolong Guan has been banned for five years from providing any financial services or controlling an entity that carries on a financial services business.
According to ASIC, Mr Guan carried on a financial services business, traded shares on behalf of clients and used managed discretionary accounts between March 2017 and August 2021, despite neither he nor his company holding an Australian financial services (AFS) licence.
While he was an authorised representative of an AFS licensee, ASIC explained Mr Guan’s authorisation did not permit him to trade shares on, or operate, managed discretionary accounts.
Moreover, ASIC said it found that Mr Guan was not competent to provide financial services as he had failed to identify that he required an AFS licence to conduct a financial services business in Australia and failed to maintain adequate client records and breached his authorised representative agreement with his AFS licensee.
Mr Guan has the right to appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for a review of ASIC’s decision.
So given the fact that in practice (not ASIC’s “theoretical” approach and understanding of things) a ban is a ban is a ban (ie regardless of how long or short it is, any ban is essentially a lifetime ban in the eyes of Dealer Groups), one receives a 5 year ban for having no license nor an understanding of licensing requirements; while another has all of the knowledge and experience and holds a license, though can be banned for 3 years for sending statements to clients a few days late?
Only 5 years?
ASIC seems to be very good at bolting the stable door after the horse has bolted. Mr Guan was acting illegally from March 2017 and is not detected or banned for 5 years… How does this licensing regime protect the average consumer? If ASIC had picked this up in April 2017 and banned him by 18 May 2017, something useful might have been achieved.
And still no bank executives doing any time for all the stuff that came out at the royal commission. Surely they were not competent in the same way as here?