ASIC licensing hurdles lower than many realise
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has terminated less than 1 per cent of 4,811 financial services licences over the past two years.
According to media reports today, ASIC official Joanna Bird told the joint committee inquiry into financial services that the “minimum requirements for licensing were lower than some investors realised”.
“They may have a perception that if they have a licence, it's gone through ASIC and everything's all right," The Australian reports.
Bird said the two requirements licensees must meet are being “of good character” and “likely to comply with their licence conditions”.
Count chairman Barry Lambert warned earlier this year that the licensing regime employed by ASIC was too lax.
"The biggest problem in our industry, in my view, is our licensing system,” Lambert said at Money Management's State of the Industry forum in April.
The Australian said ASIC will submit a chronology of events relating to its handling of the Storm Financial case to the joint committee by July 31, but has asked that it not be released to the public. The report will include when ASIC first received complaints against Storm Financial and what its responses were.
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