BFCSA Blog

Clients of collapsed broker group $11.5 million out of pocket Friday, 15 August 2014   |   James Mitchell 0 Comments     Facebook   0       Twitter   1       Google +   0             Linkedin   1 1inShare Creditors of an insolvent mortgage and financial services group are facing a multimillion-dollar haircut, as the liquidator investigates whether the director should be charged. At least four related entities of Charterhill Group entered insolvency in January. The Adelaide-based group offered a range of services including mortgage broking, real estate marketing, property management, contract negotiation and SMSF advice. Three of the Charterhill companies owe creditors a combined $11.5 million but have only collected $25,000 in payments, according to their six-month presentation of accounts. Lending Solutions International is now under the control of the liquidator, Andrew Heard of Heard Phillips. It owes $10.2 million and has received $31 in payments....

http://www.smh.com.au/business/macquarie-ordered-to-contact-160000-customers-over-possible-financial-advice-compensation-20140815-104my9.html  Financial Planning Shock - Less training than a hairdresser    Adele Ferguson, Ben Butler, Georgia Wilkins   16 August 2014 "If a person came into the salon and were given a hairdresser who only had eight days training at TAFE, I don't think they would be comfortable with that person doing their hair.": Emily Andrade, Esteem Hair and Beauty. Photo: Janie Barrett Cheating rife in financial planning Adele Ferguson: Macquarie's bombshell a call to arms Macquarie to compensate big investors More than half a million Australians may have received shoddy advice about what to do with their retirement nest eggs from financial planners, many of whom do less training than a hairdresser, it has emerged.  The crisis gripping Australia's financial advice sector deepened dramatically on Friday when the corporate regulator ordered one of the country's top financial institutions, Macquarie Group, to alert every customer it has ever provided with financial...

http://www.afr.com/p/blogs/christopher_joye/comment_cormann_fofa_changes_gift_xrftj36KtmoyEsHZjRtOrN Comment: Cormann’s FOFA changes a gift to big banks PUBLISHED: 20 Jun 2014 13:06:00 | UPDATED: 22 Jun 2014 10:23:52PRINT EDITION: Christopher Joye The Coalition’s ostensible back-flip on its “reforms” to the Future of Financial Advice (FoFA) Laws, which were originally introduced by Labor to thwart mis-selling crises, will still radically change the way financial service products are sold and businesses organised.  But because politicians speak with forked tongues, and the Coalition has now occupied three different positions on the subject since December last year, the evolution of the changes needs to be traced to understand their significance.  Under Labor’s FoFA law all forms of so-called “conflicted remuneration”, including sales bonuses and commissions paid by employers or third-party product suppliers to individuals (eg, a bank teller, stockbroker, or planner) selling products to clients, were banned unconditionally for all products except loans, deposits, and insurance. This ban applied to situations where...

Its time auditors moved into ASIC! Banksia is a  gorgeous Australian native shrub.  Yet there is nothing gorgeous about this company BANKSIA using the shrub name in vain and rhymes with Grub.  Wait until the borrowers come out of the wordwork and explain: "we were just pensioners and they enticed us into 2 year loans and we did not have to pay any payments, and then Banksia gave us blocks of land in worthless swamp territory."  Well that's according to the receivers of Banksia Securities in 2012.  I was there in the audience. ASIC was a distinct NO SHOW.  ASIC Commissioner told me face to face in Feb 2013: "Banksia Mortgages is safe - no, definitely nothing wrong with that one."  In answer to my question "what about Banksia Mortgages being a giant Ponzi?"  I explained what the receiver had said.  Commish just rolled his eyes, as one does.  Broker News...

http://sydney.edu.au/law/slr/slr_34/slr34_3/SLRv34no3Anderson.pdf   page 3.................. II The Recognition of Phoenix Activity in Australia The earliest report dealing exclusively with improper phoenix activity was that of the Victorian Parliament Law Reform Committee (‘VPLRC’) in 1994.13 The main recommendations — all sensible and practical — were to tighten the laws governing the disqualification of directors of companies, allocate more resources to detection and prosecution of offenders, change public and judicial attitudes to acknowledge the seriousness of this type of white-collar crime, improve information flows between regulators, and enact laws to allow the freezing of assets over which a company has a claim.  14 In response, in 1998 the ATO instituted the ‘Phoenix Project’, which allocated more staff to work with other agencies to address the phoenix problem.15 In 1999, the director disqualification provisions were consolidated but not significantly tightened.16 The 1994 VPLRC Report also recommended legislation to restrict the use of business names similar...

White Collar Crime is rife in Australia thanks to lazy and inept regulators.  If those who worked for the regulator are appalled at what advice was given to Governments during the past two decades then now is the time for documents to be floating around in brown paper bags.   We have broken open many big scandals in the past when a few people became a ground swell of discontent.   Retirees across the nation have lost billions of dollars 10 days after receiving their super payments and with Banks only paying low interest that trend will escalate as people try to find "where is safe to park my super that took me 40 years to accumulate?"  The safe answer does not lie with financial planners or commissioned only agents of the banks.   The industry of financial advice will tell you all the benefits and none of the risks -...

http://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2013/10/asic-blows-bureaucratic-smoke/ Posted by Houses and Holes in Australian Economyat 1:58pm on October 11, 2013   From ASIC chief Greg Medcraft................“Today, I want to set the record straight. My point is that in any foreign bribery investigation, criminal proceedings are the main game,” he said in a copy of his speech to the American Chamber of Commerce in Australia. “ASIC cannot – and will not – do anything to jeopardise the success of criminal actions. This is something the media has mostly chosen to ignore..........There are three points to make. ...................   The Four Corners expose on the case of corruption and bribery at RBA subsidiaries made the point that the Federal Police had investigated Securency then passed the issue to ASIC, where it disappeared.   From the ABC program: The AFP handed its evidence to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). In a statement, ASIC said it had reviewed the...

http://www.crikey.com.au/2005/04/12/peter-costellos-asic-hypocrisy/ Peter Costello’s ASIC hypocrisy By Stephen Mayne|Apr 12, 2005   Queensland’s threat to withdraw its support for the Federal Corporations Law sparked treasurer Peter Costello to warn this would make Australia’s nine sets of laws more costly and complex than the whole of Europe. However, what Costello failed to mention is that since the Feds got control of the Corporations Laws, ASIC has become a profit centre, pulling in more than $400 million a year in revenue while costing less than $180 million a year to run.  Crikey blew the lid on this rort last July as you can see here when we wrote: Ever heard of a regulatory body which generates hundreds of millions a year in surplus revenue? Look no further than ASIC which gouges Australia’s big and small business alike and has handed over more than $1.5 billion in surplus revenue to the Howard Government’s budgets since...

http://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/cba-told-to-reopen-compensation-for-advice-victims-20140516-38fd7.html CBA told to reopen compensation for advice victims Banking and FinanceBusiness Date May 16, 2014 - 6:26PM Adele Ferguson and Ben Butler Commonwealth Bank has been forced to reopen its compensation process for victims of shoddy financial advice provided by two of its planning businesses.  More than 4000 customers of Commonwealth Financial Planning (CFPL) and Financial Wisdom will now be able to apply for compensation under new licence conditions imposed by corporate watchdog the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.  The decision comes after a joint Fairfax Media and Four Corners investigation into the two groups revealed that compensation payments to customers of planners in both divisions were not given the same treatment. ASIC has also admitted giving inaccurate testimony to a Senate inquiry into its performance over the financial planning scandal.  In a statement, ASIC blamed the bank for leading it to mislead the Senate, saying it sourced its information...

At loooooong last the bleeding obvious..........................................a glimmer of truth but no forgiveness from victims of ASIC's conflicted fuzzy thinking. ASIC admits conflict of interest shortcomings   inShare2           Written by James MitchellMonday, 12 May 2014   While he admits this is “not a nuanced version” of ASIC’s duties, Mr Kell said it does “capture our approach.” ASIC deputy chair Peter Kell has spoken candidly about the corporate regulator’s focus on disclosure, inability to weed out conflicts of interest and the impact on advisers. Speaking at the Centre for International Finance and Regulation conference in Sydney last week, Mr Kell said ASIC’s approach over the past 15 years has been “anything goes as long as you disclose”. “The role of disclosure is an underlying principle in structuring your regulatory requirements and regimes,” Mr Kell said. “That was central to the Wallis Inquiry regulatory philosophy and is central to...

09 May 2014 14:37:00 | UPDATED: 10 May 2014    Former Natinonal Australia Bank staffer Lukas Kamay was in court in Melbourne on Friday over insider trading, corruption and laundering charges. Photo: Wayne Taylor Georgia Wilkins An Australian Bureau of Statistics staffer and a National Australia Bank employee have been arrested on insider trading and corruption charges over allegations they made $7 million by trading on market-sensitive information on the Australian dollar. The Australian Federal Police said a 24-year-old ABS man, Christopher Russell Hill, allegedly gave his 26-year-old friend at NAB, associate director Lukas Kamay, market-sensitive information before it was released publicly by the ABS. They allege his friend then took the information to trade on the foreign exchange derivatives market using labour force, retail and trade figures – which had yet to be publicly released – to predict fluctuations in the Australian dollar. The activity generated about $7 million in...

Who permitted Banks to fleece the public and steal homes?  Who permitted Banks to use Broker Agents?  Time to dig deep and do some extensive reading............................ (APRA), “Report on Broker-originated Lending”, January 2003,   RESULTS OF A SURVEY OF AUTHORISED DEPOSIT-TAKING INSTITIONS, UNDERTAKEN BY THE AUSTRALIAN PRUDENTIAL REGULATION AUTHORITY JANUARY 2003 Contact: Mr Anoulack Chanthivong, Credit Risk Consulting, Ph: (02) 9210 3050, Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..   EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This paper presents the results and analysis of a survey of Australian Authorised Deposit Taking Institutions (ADIs) into broker-originated lending, undertaken by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA). The motivation for the survey is to provide an “official” estimate of the size of the broker-introduced loan market, as well as gauge common industry practices with the view to assisting ADIs in implementing best practice risk management. Our main findings are: • A total of 56 institutions use brokers to originate loans. This represents 25%...

http://www.afrsmartinvestor.com.au/p/market-intelligence/asic_secret_weapon_OEM0jYMawpCjSjjsLa4obN   ASIC is about to employ a surveillance system to put the finger on high frequency traders. ASIC’s secret weapon Published 22 August 2013 12:05 Australia’s new market surveillance system, designed to catch high frequency traders who flout the rules, has been built by a firm which sells software and services to the same people the regulator is looking to catch.  The new $47.3 million system will be rolled out to allay fears that Australian investors could be the target of nefarious trading activity, after reports of unusual trading activity had risen.  The new system, which the Australian Investments and Securities Commission refers to internally as Project Fast, has been designed by Irish-based developers First Derivatives.  First Derivatives says that its services and products are for firms “seeking to reduce their time-to-market” and to make sure that “orders are executed at the most optimal venue”.  Clients of First Derivatives include...

Dear members The axe is about to fall, this morning Tuesday15th  in the Australian it appears the government is contemplating selling off ASIC assets.The corporate regulators register of companies is being sized up as part of a plan that could inject $1billion cash into government coffers.This comes as a result of Greg Medcraft stating its not part of ASIC's core function and was a technology business. Could this be a sacraficial lamb to apease the government directive that all departments must suggest ways of saving costs across the board. In light of all the bad media exposure and the revelations of the Senate Inquiry could this be ASIC's attempt to stave off job losses especially at the top? The CSIRO and next the ABC are starting to bare the brunt of expenditure cuts so its only a matter of time. Just the chairman and his commissioners wages runs into millions and...

Dear members If you want a front row seat into ASIC's performance its being telecast on the A-PAC channel on Foxtel from 8-45am Thursday.Its going to be along day because its scheduled to last over twelve hours, happy veiwing. Thanks Neil T....

Mr XXXX has threatened us, so in preservation of sanity we have removed his name from history as though he never existed. Dear members Just when I thought I had seen it all along comes Mr XXXX, what a vain and egotistical low life and to have the gall to openly expose himself to Four Corners with out even a hint of remorse just goes to show how evil this man is. He deliberately targeted people in financial distress who were relying on him to work out business plans whereby people could negotiate plans to get back on their feet. Mr XXXX's plans were to strip them of everything they owned right from the start. The fact this man had a map of all the Aboriginal land councils land in NSW as prospective targets just shows what a base human being he is. I like most bfcsa members before joining the...

Senate Economics Legislation Committee ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS ON NOTICE Treasury Portfolio Additional Estimates, 16 & 17 February 2005  Question: Add 10 Topic: Get-Rich-Quick Schemes – Property Spruikers Hansard Page: E90 Senator Lundy asked: One of the issues you spoke to in your opening statement was action against the get-rich-quick schemes and you mentioned the 60 illegal investment schemes shut down. How many of those were specifically property spruikers? Could you take on notice providing a list with the detail of that nature to the best of your ability? Answer: In the financial year to 30 June 2004, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) took action to protect consumers against illegal get-rich-quick investment schemes, property spruikers and wealth creation seminar promoters. As to the first category of enforcement action, ASIC shut down 60 illegal investment schemes, involving about 5,000 investors and $110 million in invested funds. Although some of these schemes...

http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Corporations_and_Financial_Services/asic/asic052/~/media/Committees/Senate/committee/corporations_ctte/asic/asic_05_2/e04.ashx In late 2004 and early 2005, ASIC undertook a surveillance looking at whether advisers were complying with their obligations to disclose, in the Statement of Advice (SOA) given to clients, the costs, possible loss of benefits and other significant consequences of following advice to switch super funds.  During this surveillance, ASIC uncovered some cases where the interests of clients were harmed by poor advice. PURPOSE OF THIS REPORT The purpose of this report is twofold: •  to explain the methodology behind the surveillance; and •  to illustrate the results of the surveillance in simple language. PROJECT METHODOLOGY ASIC started surveillance on superannuation switching advice in December 2004 to assess how financial advisers were, at that time, complying with new legal obligations relating to advice to switch superannuation products. ASIC’s surveillance sample included 19 AFS licensees and 93 representatives of those licensees. Initially, ASIC reviewed 101 client files in which personal...

Extended interview with James Wheeldon (Lawyer Whistleblower) Updated Thu 3 Apr 2014, 10:37pm AEDT ASIC is used to dealing with whistleblowers coming forward, but is now having to deal with an insider blowing the whistle on it. The corporate regulator faces accusations it was in the pocket of the big financial services players during a round of super industry changes ten years ago. Lawyer James Wheeldon speaks to Ticky. Ticky Fullerton Source: The Business | Duration: 26min 56sec http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-04-03/extended-interview-with-james-wheeldon/5366380     Now listen to the Extended interview with Peter Kell Updated Thu 3 Apr 2014, 10:23pm AEDT ASIC Deputy Chairman Peter Kell flatly refutes James Wheeldon's allegations. He speaks to Ticky. Ticky Fullerton Source: The Business | Duration: 10min 57sec Duration 10mins 57sec   http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-04-03/extended-interview-with-peter-kell/5366354        ...

Dear members If you don't read Hansard on James Wheeldons exposure of ASIC to the Senators then go to the ABC and watch "The Business" on iview. The reason we never hear about former workers talking about ASIC is that they have to sign confidentiallity clauses to keep quiet when they leave as in Jame's case. At last someone from the inside exposes how ASIC is the tool of the banksters and how it is the banksters and their lawyers who dictate how the laws are written and applied. James is confirming what we all at BFCSA have long suspected that ASIC is the banksters agent and not a protector of the consumer. Commissioner Price is trying to dismiss these claims but he was a main player when all this occured. While the greedy banks were ripping us ARIP's off ten years ago they were targetting everyones Super aswell. Evidence given...