Releasing its fourth six-monthly enforcement report, the corporate regulator pointed to actions against Macquarie Entities, Suncorp and Wickham Securities as being among the most notable enforcement outcomes this year.
ASIC also pointed to new outcomes arising from the Storm Financial case as a significant achievement, arguing it had secured $1.1 million in compensation for former investors Barry and Deanna Doyle.
In total, nine of the 63 financial services actions resulted in criminal proceedings and 13 in civil proceedings, with 28 entities coming in for administrative remedies and 13 groups undergoing enforceable undertakings.
By contrast there were nine actions in the period for market manipulation and six for corporate governance. There were 293 actions taken against small business operators, bumping the total number of actions for the six months taken by ASIC to 371.
Despite the number of actions, ASIC highlighted the fact that it has in the past “adopted a facilitative approach to the implementation of key reforms” such as the National Consumer Credit Protection reforms, and would continue to do so for new reforms such as Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) reforms.
“However, once gatekeepers have had sufficient time to familiarise themselves with their new obligations, we will take a more enforcement-oriented approach to breaches of the law,” ASIC stated.
The regulator said it has also included aggregate data for the past two years during which it has been publicly reporting on its enforcement results, allowing ASIC to identify emerging areas of focus.
“With investors’ search for yield in a time of low interest rates seemingly showing no signs of slowing down, we will target misleading or deceptive advertising and sales practices by product issuers to ensure higher risk products aren’t being mis-sold,” ASIC Commissioner Greg Tanzer said.
“Likewise, as the number of corporate insolvencies in Australia continues to rise, we will be looking to key gatekeepers such as directors and insolvency practitioners to ensure that they make appropriate decisions and uphold their obligations.”
Mr Tanzer said the discovery of legacy issues by firms as a result of recent reforms, including FOFA and Stronger Super, “brought the obligation to self-report breaches to ASIC to the forefront.”
ASIC also said it expected to continue to deal with fallout from the global financial crisis “for some time” as enforcement actions make their way through the courts.
“ASIC will work constructively with companies who act promptly and appropriately in reporting breaches, to ensure that compliance issues are analysed and resolved and that consumers and investors can feel confident in the financial system,” Mr Tanzer said.
