The regulator has cancelled the AFSL of Aretean, an Australian-owned specialist property funds management and advisory company.
The company said it has over $250 million in assets under management and a pipeline of $1 billion in property across residential apartments and A-grade office space.
It ran three funds: Fixed Income, Real Estate Development and Real Estate Income.
The firm’s AFSL was cancelled by ASIC on 10 July 2024 as it failed to maintain membership of the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA).
A second AFSL, Colleen Hennequin, which is a tax accountants and business advisory firm based in Melbourne, was also cancelled for the same reason on 4 July.
ASIC noted, as well as failing to maintain AFCA membership, the AFSLs had varyingly failed to prepare and lodge an annual profit and loss statement and balance sheet, and ceased to carry on a financial services business.
The regulator said: “AFCA membership gives consumers access to a free, fair and independent dispute resolution scheme if a complaint cannot be resolved internally by a licensee.
“ASIC works with AFCA to identify AFS licence and credit licence holders that do not comply with their obligation to maintain their AFCA membership.
“If an entity is expelled from the scheme or requests to withdraw membership, AFCA must notify ASIC. Where an entity fails to comply, or is otherwise in breach of general conduct obligations, ASIC will continue to take action to cancel AFS licence or credit licences.”
In addition to the two AFSL cancellations, ASIC also cancelled 11 Australian credit licences between 6 June 2024 and 16 September 2024 for their failure to maintain AFCA membership.
Earlier today (11 October), ASIC announced its licensing activities for the 2023–24 financial year, detailing how it has cancelled or suspended 239 AFSLs during the year.
Some 239 AFSLs were cancelled or suspended; 29 were cancelled by ASIC, 212 were cancelled at the firm’s request, and 28 were suspended. The figure was a 9 per cent decrease from 2022–23.
