Time for Storm founders to take responsibility
The founders of Storm Financial must take responsibility for the collapse of the firm and its effect on thousands of clients, according to Damian Scattini from Slater & Gordon.
His comments follow the finalisation of more than 900 claims lodged with law firm Slater & Gordon by clients affected by the Storm Financial collapse, 12 months since the commencement of the Storm-Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) resolution scheme.
“We also look forward to [the Australian Securities and Investments Commission] taking action against the founders of Storm Financial who must take responsibility for this disaster,” Scattini said.
“While these settlements will never give everyone back exactly what they lost it allows them to move on and to start rebuilding their lives,” he added.
There are still more than 200 remaining claims, which Slater & Gordon expect to be finalised by the end of this year.
Scattini said while many CBA clients had received compensation, there were still thousands, including clients from other banks, particularly from the Bank of Queensland, who were struggling.
Recent settlements bring the total number of individual investors who have now received compensation from CBA to more than 1500.
Slater & Gordon understands that no former Storm/CBA clients have received any compensation outside the Storm/CBA resolution scheme, which was negotiated by the law firm last year.
The majority of the processed claims came from Queensland.
Recommended for you
Licensee Centrepoint Alliance has completed the acquisition of Brighter Super’s annual review service advice book, via Financial Advice Matters.
ASIC has launched court proceedings against the responsible entity of three managed investment schemes with around 600 retail investors.
There is a gap in the market for Australian advisers to help individuals with succession planning as the country has been noted by Capital Group for being overly “hands off” around inheritances.
ASIC has cancelled the AFSL of an advice firm associated with Shield and First Guardian collapses, and permanently banned its responsible manager.