ASIC makes 700 separate enforcement actions for 2013
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has taken 78 separate actions against financial services providers in the second half of 2013, including 10 criminal enforcements related to financial services misconduct.
In a report released today by the regulator summarising its enforcement action from 1 July to 31 December 2013, ASIC stated it had made a total of 340 enforcement actions across all areas under its supervision. In the first half of 2013, ASIC achieved 371 outcomes and also made 78 enforcement outcomes for a total of 711 enforcement actions for the past year.
Of the 78 actions taken within financial services in the second half of last year, 16 related to dishonest conduct, misleading statements and unconscionable conduct, 10 related to misappropriation, theft, fraud, 28 to credit failures and 24 to "other financial services misconduct".
Of these ASIC achieved 10 criminal outcomes and five civil outcomes relating to financial services misconduct and two criminal outcomes relating to credit misconduct, with a total of 12 people banned from the financial services industry, 10 of them permanently.
While ASIC did not detail all the enforcement matters it had undertaken, it did specifically mention the enforceable undertaking (EU) given to Western Australia-based planning group WealthSure, criticising the licensee for a "‘light touch' approach to compliance".
ASIC stated that this followed an investigation started in December 2011 which examined WealthSure's compliance systems and "identified recurring compliance deficiencies, despite previous regulatory intervention in 2006".
In referencing the WealthSure EU, ASIC said it would be placing greater attention on Australian Financial Services Licensees that "fail to detect, prevent or deter poor compliance practices by employees or authorised representatives of their organisation, where this enables improper practices to occur".
The regulator will also target how financial services providers advertise and market their product and services, particularly when products are compared and the comparisons may be misleading.
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