Almost half of financial advisers have no confidence at all in ASIC’s ability to monitor and prevent malpractice and financial product collapses, new research by CoreData on the Ripoll Inquiry has revealed.

Four out of five respondents (79.4%) feel advisers are being unfairly targeted, and more than half (57.5%) expect their professional indemnity insurance premiums to increase if the recommendations are adopted.

The research was conducted on Wednesday and Thursday, November 25 and 26 by Sydney-based independent research group CoreData and included 236 advisers, predominantly financial planners and practice principals.

Almost two thirds of respondents (64.3%) disagree that payments from product manufacturers to financial advisers should be ceased and three quarters (76.8%) do not agree that conflicts of interest will be stamped out if the recommendations are adopted.
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Australia’s corporate watchdog says companies and financial advisers need to crack down on information leakage that seems to have been happening ahead of capital raisings.

Share price declines ahead of prospective raisings suggested that information was being leaked and used to lower the value of the stock being offered, Australian Securities and Investments Commission commissioner Belinda Gibson said on Tuesday.

This appeared to be mainly the result of lax treatment of confidential information by companies and their financial advisers, she said.

“ASIC thinks there needs to be more work done on how confidential information is handled,” Ms Gibson said at a corporate finance conference in Sydney.
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Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has paid a $100,000 fine from the corporate watchdog for an alleged failure to disclose a hike in its 2009 bad debt forecast ahead of a controversial $2 billion capital raising.

CBA on Wednesday said that while it agreed to pay the penalty imposed by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), that payment was not an admission of liability.

Nor could the bank’s agreement to pay be taken as a finding that CBA had contravened the Corporations Act and its continuous disclosure rules.

ASIC had alleged CBA failed to notify the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) after it became aware that its full year loan impairment expense (LIE) to gross loans and acceptances ratio to June 30, 2009 would rise by a material amount.
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The corporate watchdog is to take over supervision of all Australia’s financial markets to ensure their regulatory arrangements remain among the best in the world, federal Treasurer Wayne Swan says.

The move, which is expected to be completed by the second half of next year, was another step towards Australia’s establishment as a financial services hub for the region, he said.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) will perform the supervision of real-time trading on all of Australia’s domestic licensed markets.

It will continue its law enforcement role against misconduct within markets.
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The founders of Storm Financial have been summonsed to appear at a public examination into the failed advisory firm.

During a brief hearing in the Federal Court in Brisbane on Monday, registrar Heather Baldwin ordered Emmanuel and Julie Cassimatis appear in court to give evidence about their company.

Storm Financial, which claimed to have about $4.7 billion of funds under management and more than 14,000 clients, went into administration in January.

The Federal Court ordered the company’s winding up in March, with debts of around $80 million, leaving investors with huge losses and fears they may never recoup their money.
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Consumer group CHOICE welcomes recommendations from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) for sweeping reforms for the financial advice industry, including banning upfront and trail commissions and percentage-based fees paid to financial advisers.

“Consumers need to be sure that their financial advisers are working for their benefit and their benefit alone,” said CHOICE senior policy officer Elissa Freeman.

“These recommendations are the first steps towards removing the perverse incentives that lead financial advisers to push products on their clients.”
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New national consumer credit laws, which include tougher penalties for dodgy lenders, are being introduced by the federal government.

Financial Services Minister Chris Bowen says the measure will make it less likely that families who can’t meet their debts will lose their homes.

Mr Bowen told parliament on Thursday the measures will replace the present state-based system of consumer credit protection, which operates inconsistently across the eight jurisdictions.

“As well as making the consumer credit system fairer, more consistent and more workable, the new regime will significantly improve the effectiveness of protection for consumers,” he said.
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ASIC has permanently banned Mr Mark William Clough, of Burwood Victoria from providing financial services.

This follows an ASIC investigation into Mr Clough’s dealings when he operated an insurance consultancy business which traded as Muir Sturrock Pty Ltd and Muir Sturrock Consulting.

ASIC found that Mr Clough engaged in dishonest conduct between August 2000 and July 2005 when he received a total of $43,500 from a client to for the purpose of obtaining income protection insurance policies, but instead, retained the funds for his personal use.
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On 19 June 2009, the Federal Court declared that Whyte Corporation Pty Ltd had engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct regarding a mortgage calculator, known as the EquityExcel Plan.

ASIC took action in November 2008 against Whyte Corporation and Mr Gavin Whyte, the director of Whyte Corporation, alleging they contravened the Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act (ASIC Act) by representing that the EquityExcel Plan allowed borrowers to pay off their mortgage sooner and make substantial savings with no increase in their monthly payments or changes in their lifestyle.

ASIC alleged that this representation was misleading, or likely to mislead, as a borrower could only pay off their mortgage sooner or make substantial savings using the EquityExcel Plan if they made considerable additional repayments over and above their minimum monthly repayments.
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RBS Reverse Mortgages is urging the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and the Australian Government Financial Literacy Board not to overlook the life-changing power of reverse mortgages.

ASIC has released a new guide, ‘Thinking of using the equity in your home?’. While a useful guide, RBS Reverse Mortgages believes the guide may scare some seniors who could benefit from a reverse mortgage.

“The new booklet is welcome as another source of information for retirees,” says RBS Reverse Mortgages, head of reverse mortgages, Martin Lynch who believes it is vital that customers understand all the issues and risks associated with the product.
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The corporate regulator and Financial Literacy Board have launched a guide to reverse mortgage products.

The guide, `Thinking of using the equity in your home?’ has been designed to assist homeowners considering such products.

Australian Securities and Investments Commission chairman Tony D’Aloisio said in a statement people often find it difficult to understand such products.

“One of the big challenges is how to estimate the long-term cost of reverse mortgages and ensure there is enough equity left to fund future needs,” he said on Monday.
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Adrian Camilleri, disgraced former mortgage broker and ex-boyfriend of supermodel Miranda Kerr, has been sentenced to a maximum of 21 months in jail for misappropriating an investor’s money.

The NSW District Court on Wednesday sentenced the 34-year-old from Edgecliff, in Sydney, to jail with a non-parole period of nine months, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) said.

Camilleri was last week found guilty of one count of fraud relating to his mortgage broking business Asset Finance Service.
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photo credit: Foz555Former mortgage broker Adrian Camilleri, an ex-boyfriend of supermodel Miranda Kerr, has been found guilty on one count of fraud, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) said on Wednesday.

ASIC said it had investigated Camilleri’s conduct between December 2005 and September 2006 while he was the sole director of Asset Finance Service Pty Ltd.

Asset Finance Service was a mortgage broking business that sourced lending capital from private investors.

In December 2005 the company received $123,441 from an investor, with the funds to be used for either investment in short-term secured loans or to be returned, ASIC said in a statement.
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Adelaide based company, Power Financial Planning Pty Ltd, and its former director, Mr Stephen McArdle, were today represented in the Adelaide Magistrates Court in relation to charges brought by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

Power Financial Planning Pty Ltd is charged with carrying on a financial services business without an Australian financial services licence (AFSL). Mr McArdle is charged with aiding, abetting, counselling and procuring the company to deal in financial products totalling in excess of $10 million, including Westpoint promissory notes, without an AFSL in contravention of the Corporations Act.

It is alleged that Power Financial Planning Pty Ltd, assisted by Mr McArdle, arranged for investors to acquire Westpoint promissory notes and interests in the Prime Retirement and Aged Care Property Trust, the Kebbel Development Capital Fund No. 2 (The Gilead Trust) and Kebbel Development Capital Fund No. 3 (The Riverside Pier Trust).
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Mortgage brokers will have to be licensed and tougher penalties for irresponsible lending will be introduced as part of an overhaul of consumer credit laws.

The Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) will get an extra $66 million over four years as part of the overhaul, announced by Superannuation and Corporate Law Minister Nick Sherry on Monday.

The financial regulator will hire 200 new staff to enforce the changes.

“This law will see simple, standard, national regulation of consumer credit for the first time in our country’s history,” Senator Sherry told reporters in Canberra.
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