ASIC wraps up CBA compensation compliance checks
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has released the final report on the Commonwealth Bank’s (CBA’s) compliance with additional licence conditions that were imposed regarding advice compensation, written by KordaMentha Forensic.
The forensics firm was appointed as an independent expert to monitor the bank’s compliance with the conditions, after the regulatory imposed them on the Australian Financial Services licences of Commonwealth Financial Planning and Financial Wisdom in August, 2014.
The final report found that the bank had complied with the conditions, which required that CBA offer compensation for inappropriate advice that caused financial loss and offer affected customers up to $5,000 to get independent advice from an accountant, financial adviser or lawyer. These were imposed after CBA didn’t apply review and remediation processes to customers of 15 financial advisers, disadvantaging some of them.
KordaMentha Forensic found that the bank had offered a further $2.3 million to 232 clients of five advisers, in addition to $4.95 million already offered to customers of different advisers and $1.9 million to additional customers because of CBA’s review outside of the licence conditions.
This brought the total compensation offered as a result of the conditions imposed by ASIC in 2014 to $9.3 million.
AUTHOR
Hannah Wootton
Recommended for you
AZ NGA has entered into a strategic partnership with national advice firm MiQ Private Wealth, as a way to provide a succession solution, as well as career development opportunities for staff.
While the advice profession struggles under growing operating costs, Adviser Ratings has found more than half of practices – some 58 per cent – that generate less than $250,000 in revenue report no profit at all.
The Federal Court has ordered the freezing of assets and the appointment of receivers to two entities linked to Australian Fiduciaries, ASIC’s latest move in an ongoing investigation into the company’s managed investment schemes.
Off the back of the August adviser exam results, the profession has seen 17 new entrants hit the Financial Adviser Register (FAR) this week, helping numbers return to positive territory.
