ASIC cancels AFS licence for Queensland firm
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has cancelled Australian financial services (AFS) licence of a Queensland-based firm Advamode Financial at the company's request.
The financial services firm requested the licence cancellation upon being placed into liquidation in May, 2016.
Although the AFS licence cancellation came into force effectively on 20 June, 2016, the clients with concerns may still lodge their complaints about any advice received from the Advamode representatives.
The request of licence cancellation, as well as the company's liquidation, followed previous action taken by ASIC against it in September 2015, when the regulator decided to impose licence conditions on the financial services offered by Advamode.
At that time, ASIC raised concerns over the company's ability to ‘effectively carry out their supervisory requirements', which included the ability to:
- Ensure that financial services were provided effectively, honestly and fairly;
- Demonstrate adequate financial resources were available to provide financial services and carry out supervisory arrangements;
- Have adequate arrangements in place to manage conflicts of interest; and
- Demonstrate adequate research and inquiry had been undertaken into financial products.
ASIC also said that Advamode's licence would remain in effect for the purposes of External Dispute Resolution Scheme membership and client compenstaion purposes.
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