ASIC dishes out $100k in fines for unregistered | Australian Markets
The financial companies watchdog has issued almost $100,000 in fines to a few Australian advice companies for offering personal advice via unregistered advisers.
The two Queensland-based advisory companies, Australian Advice Network and Sherrin Partners Services, and one NSW-based firm, IA Advice, final month paid out $31,300 in fines that have been issued by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC).
Whilst acknowledging that fee of an infringement discover “is not an admission of guilt or liability”, ASIC stated that its infringement motion was based mostly on cheap grounds that these companies had authorised an unregistered adviser to offer personal advice on financial merchandise to retail shoppers.
The regulator confirmed that every of the three penalised companies instantly registered their financial adviser and reported their breach after turning into conscious of their adviser being unregistered.
The three penalised companies are actually listed on ASIC’s infringement notices register.
ASIC launched the registration requirement for advisers in February 2024 as half of the Better Advice Act, with the giving of financial advice whereas unregistered a breach of s921 of the Corporations Act.
The law requires that if a financial adviser breaches the law by giving financial advice whereas unregistered, ASIC should both refer the financial adviser to the Financial Services and Credit Panel or take its own regulatory motion.
“Failure to register a financial adviser creates a risk for consumers who may receive personal advice from unregistered advisers,” ASIC wrote in response to its penalty notices.
“The registration requirement is an important client safety mechanism to make sure AFS licensees have thought of and obtained declarations about whether or not their financial advisers are match and correct and meet the schooling and coaching requirements.
ASIC added that a failure by companies to register financial advisers may point out a lack of satisfactory governance preparations to adjust to legal necessities.
The regulator urged AFS licensees and related suppliers to remember of their ongoing registration obligations.
Financial advisers and their AFS licensees can affirm their advisers’ registration standing by way of the Financial advisers register.
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