Financial Choice fined for misleading customers
Australian financial services provider, Financial Choice, founded by Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) chair, Greg Medcraft’s cousin, Russell Medcraft, has paid $21,600 in penalties for false and misleading representations.
The firm has paid two ASIC infringement notice penalties after making misleading representations in marketing e-mails sent to consumers and on its website.
The first infringement notice related to a representation made by Financial Choice in bulk emails the company sent to around 215,000 consumers in 2016. The emails falsely stated that the firm had been asked by the consumer’s superannuation fund to conduct a survey about their super.
The second infringement notice related to misleading representations on the website operated by Financial Choice, findmysuper.com.au.
On 14 June, in contravention of the ASIC Act 2001, the firm made the following misleading representation on this website: “Find My Super is the only website in Australia that can find ‘old’ and ‘inactive’ super accounts that match your name and tax file number for free”.
ASIC believed those representations would lead to consumers to believe they would need to use these services to find their lost super for free, and maintain contact with their super fund while overseas.
ASIC said these representations were false and misleading given consumers could search for lost super through other avenues including the free service offered by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), and through contacting their super fund.
The firm has agreed to stop send communication to consumers which says it was surveying them on the request of their super fund, and remove misleading statements from the Find My Super website.
ASIC deputy chair, Peter Kell, said: “Consumers can be heavily influenced by promotional materials published by financial services providers. For this reason, ASIC will continue to take action where we believe those materials are misleading”.
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