BFCSA Blog

Could Pauline Hanson poison the swamp? Jason Murphy 9 July 2016   http://www.news.com.au/travel/australian-holidays/could-pauline-hanson-poison-the-swamp/news-story/db28d437c995c90bb3ac63cc5f682446 WHAT Australia needs — right now — is to be swamped by Asians. As the price of oil and coal falls, Australia’s economy depends on the export of services, especially tourism. We can be excellent at tourism. Our country is beautiful, ancient and unique. Our cities are rich and rare. Our animals are so darn cute. Tourism offers us a rich future. We could become the France of the Southern Hemisphere, raking in billions and billions a year from visitors. But it all depends on people thinking well of us.   Pauline Hanson is not helping. The newly-elected Senator from Queensland did plenty damage to our reputation in Asia last time, when she was an MP for the Queensland seat of Oxley, and that is all about to repeat.   Chinese tourists bring in big money to Australia...

Chilcot Report: The mind-boggling incompetence of Bush, Blair and Howard laid bare Sydney Morning Herald July 7, 2016 - 4:37AM Paul McGeough Chief foreign correspondent   The three buccaneers took leave of their senses in invading Iraq – George W. Bush, Tony Blair and John Howard. The former British Prime Minister earns a rare place in history's crosshairs as one of just two on the planet who might have stopped crazy man Bush – the other being Bush's hapless Secretary of State, Colin Powell. By not restraining the US president, each was an enabler in Washington's worst-ever foreign policy blunder. And the Australian PM? Howard's was a bit part, but it was important – as the patsy from Down Under, his eagerness to sign on made it possible for Bush to dress up his miscalculated need to go after Saddam Hussein in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, as an imposing...

Child protection loopholes a 'national disgrace', royal commission told Sydney Morning Herald June 29, 2016 - 1:18PM Rachel Browne   Sexual predators can move freely between youth organisations by exploiting nationally inconsistent child protection laws and loopholes in background checks, a royal commission has heard. Giving evidence on the seventh day of a public inquiry into the Australian Defence Force, retired Air Commodore Dennis Green agreed the situation created risks for youngsters. Commodore Green is a former director general of the Australian Air Force Cadets, where the commission has heard a number of teenagers suffered sexual abuse. "The legislation across the states and territories relating to child abuse is not consistent," he said. "Variations in Working With Children Checks make it difficult to deliver a nationally consistent, safe environment for the training and care of young people." Chairman of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse Peter McClellan...

ASIC FAILS TO MENTION LENDERS are the APPROVAL MASTERS of Mortgage Lending MENACE.   Online brokers lure investors, flout rules: Says dumb ASIC Sydney Morning Herald June 20, 2016 - 6:54PM Georgia Wilkins   Australian consumers are being lured into high-risk financial products by online brokers that are flouting the country's financial licensing rules.  A report by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission revealed "serious and widespread" compliance failures in the over-the-counter derivatives industry, including foreign exchange trading.  More than 70 per cent of the 55 companies probed by ASIC – all holding Australian financial services licences – were found to be in breach of licensing requirements.  The breaches included misleading consumers, mishandling client money and obscuring changes in ownership – sometimes through the use of "managers for hire". "This report highlights some serious compliance failures in this industry," ASIC Commissioner Cathie Armour said.  "Many of these investment products may not...

The Internet of Things: it's arrived and it's eyeing your job May 21 2016 Malcolm Maiden http://www.smh.com.au/business/innovation/the-internet-of-things-its-finally-arrived-and-its-eyeing-your-job-20160520-gozz1f We have been hearing about the Internet of Things for years, but get ready. It has finally arrived, and it has the potential to unleash economic disruption that makes what the internet has delivered so far look like child's play. Telstra CEO Andy Penn is better placed than most to watch it happen. Telstra is in the middle of it, through initiatives of its own such as e-health and through its wireless network, which supports a growing universe of apps.   A Telstra SIM connection allows Tesla cars to connect to the internet in this country, for example. A new one helps graziers manage stock by alerting them when gates have been left open.  Penn also drives a Tesla, Elon Musk's sculptural electric rocket. Earlier this year, he and his family decided to drive...

Low interest rates exacerbate real risks Australian Financial Review May 18 2016 11:15 AM Christopher Joye   Don't buy into the Reserve Bank of Australia's ever-cheaper-money-makes-us-better-off bullshit. Taking on more record debt at the puniest interest rates in human history to artificially boost economic activity to some theoretically acceptable growth rate – and the existence of zombie businesses that would never survive with a normal cost of capital – is plainly stupid. The same logic applies to mindlessly chasing absolute yields and buying horrifically overvalued investments just because the RBA wants to ignite "animal spirits". The risk-averse would be better served making peace with meagre returns and avoiding catastrophic capital losses when fundamentals wrest control of asset prices back from policymakers who think they know better. To recap, on May 3 the RBA decided to slash the cash rate to a new all-time nadir of 1.75 per cent, even though growth...

Government banking package fails on corporate policing     The government's attempt to head off a royal commission into the banks fails to address the systemic problems of financial regulation in Australia -- a timid regulator and no protection for whistleblowers. The government’s political package to solve the problem posed by Labor’s call for a banking royal commission will leave the systemic problems of lack of financial sector oversight unaddressed. This morning Treasurer Scott Morrison and Assistant Treasurer Kelly O’Dwyer announced a hastily contrived set of changes to beef up the corporate regulator, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. The $120 million funding cut from ASIC’s budget will be restored via a levy on the banks, but only half of it ($57 million) will flow into additional operational funding, with the other half to go into capital spending for “enhanced data analytics”, meaning only around half of the several hundred staff cut...

Federal budget 2016: Scott Morrison to give extra $120m to corporate regulator ASIC DateApril 19, 2016 - 8:47PM 362 reading now Read later James Massola Treasurer Scott Morrison will announce at least $120 million in additional funding for corporate regulator ASIC as part of a suite of measures to be unveiled on Wednesday, after he and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull were challenged by the Coalition backbench on the need to crack down on bank behaviour. The announcement will come a day after Mr Turnbull confirmed Australians will go to the polls in a double dissolution election to be held on July 2 and is designed to blunt the political impact of Labor's push for a banks royal commission. The federal government's formal response to a capability review of ASIC, which was considered by the cabinet on Monday night, will more than restore the $120 million, four-year funding cut from the regulator in...

ASIC doing a modicom of work     Ex-ASIC lawyer accused of defrauding her father 16 April 2016 Sarah Danckert   http://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/exasic-lawyer-vanessa-ash-and-bradley-grimm-accused-of-defrauding-her-father-20160414-go6yyc.html     In January 2014, when Bradley Grimm and his wife Vanessa Ash moved into the sprawling mansion in Rockingham Close in Melbourne's well-heeled suburb of Kew, the owner of the property was unaware his tenants had allegedly defrauded him.  Tucked away in a nursing home in the equally blue-ribbon suburb of Armadale, the owner of the property, Vanessa Ash's 76-year old father Graham Ash, was not making his own financial decisions after a nasty fall and the onset of Parkinson's cruelled his retirement.  Instead, Graham Ash had appointed his accomplished daughter, a former lawyer for the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and the wife of stockbroker Grimm, his power of attorney in 2012. He later named Vanessa as a director of the trustee company controlling her father's estate...

Backtracking........looks like ASIC have been prevented from what they need to do their job properly........why?   ASIC's miserable excuses are woeful.  They area direct cause of the banker scandals wandering on for 15 years!!!  Notice Medcraft today as always forgets to mention the word Low Doc.     ASIC bleats it wants money - to do what exactly?  Same ole nothing!   ASIC had powers to deal with Bank funded Spruikers in 2003.  They wait until all these spruikers are moved by Banks offshore?  Are you kidding me?   ASIC warns it cannot do its job without access to metadata   December 3 2014 http://www.smh.com.au/business/asic-warns-it-cannot-do-its-job-without-access-to-metadata-20141203-11z7ty.html  The head of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission has warned that the corporate regulator will not be able to do its job properly if it does not have access to critical metadata that other enforcement agencies such as the federal police and ASIO have access to....

LMI investor site – still going on and ASIC could have stopped in 2002....     The Culpability Debate   https://sites.google.com/site/lminvestorvictimcentre/comment-debate/the-debate   Latest ASIC 'Civil Action Against LM and Former Directors' media release: On 2 February 2016, His Honour Edelman J set the matter down for trial for four weeks from 29 August 2016 to 23 September 2016, and scheduled the next directions hearing for 26 February 2016.     The LMIM business model deployed 'independent' financial advisors to attract investors to the funds it offered. In the case of the MPF, created to attract investors from across the globe, interaction with an advisor or intermediary was the only way to invest in the fund. Non Australian investors paid a with-holding tax on investment returns to the Australian authorities as, one would sincerely hope, a contribution to the cost of a licensing and regulatory system that ensures investors monies are invested...

ASIC to nail second big bank on misconduct 5 April 2016  http://www.afr.com/street-talk/asic-to-nail-second-big-bank-on-misconduct-20160403-gnxhry  The corporate regulator is set to ramp up its attack on potential bank-bill rate riggers and trader misconduct, launching action against a second major Australian bank as early as Tuesday. Sources told Street Talk the action related to senior staff within another treasury division of a big four bank and the market chat functions used between them. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has delved into the communications of all the large banks and in this latest instance is said to have uncovered the use of aggressive and inappropriate language. An ASIC spokesman declined to comment on specific cases saying only that the regulator was "looking at all the banks." This follows the regulator kicking off court proceedings against ANZ Banking Group in March alleging traders manipulated the bank-bill-swap rate. The ASIC documents were quite damning for ANZ in...

ASIC boss backs Funke Kupper in face of bribery scandal AM By AM business editor Peter Ryan Posted Tue 22 Mar 2016, 8:31am The chairman of Australia's corporate regulator has taken the unusual step of publically backing the former chief executive of the Australian Securities Exchange, who resigned suddenly yesterday in the face of a bribery scandal. In a surprise decision, Elmer Funke Kupper quit over allegations surrounding a $200,000 payment to the family of Cambodia's prime minister while he was chief executive of the gaming company Tabcorp. The integrity of listed companies including ASX Limited is overseen by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). While not commenting on the Australian Federal Police investigation into Tabcorp's activities in Cambodia, ASIC boss Greg Medcraft told the ABC's AM program that Mr Funke Kupper's resignation was a sad loss. "It's very unfortunate. Elmer is a really creative, talented CEO. I think he's...

Watchdog moves on Henry Kaye-linked scheme DateDecember 18, 2015 (29)                 Royce Millar, Ben Schneiders, Simon Johanson      Henry Kaye leaving the Magistrates Court in 2007 Photo: Penny Stephens A massive land banking scam linked to notorious property spruiker Henry Kaye is in tatters after the corporate regulator moved to wind up housing projects in Melbourne's outer west and Bendigo. In a statement issued on Friday afternoon, ASIC said it was concerned the companies behind the two schemes were insolvent and that investors who had bought lots or options may have been mislead. The two projects – among about 10 such schemes in Victoria and Queensland – are known as Foscari in Wyndham and Hermitage in Bendigo. The ASIC statement noted that Foscari and Hermitage projects were not close to completion and "appear to be incapable of completion due to the financial position of the development companies". The focus of a...

ASIC shifting the blame again...read the comments   Brokers responsible for more than half of interest-only lending, ASIC reveals   18 December 2015   http://www.brokernews.com.au/news/breaking-news/brokers-responsible-for-more-than-half-of-interestonly-lending-asic-reveals-210100.aspx   More than half of interest-only loans come through the third party channel, corporate regulator ASIC has revealed ahead of its forthcoming review of mortgage brokers in regards to interest-only lending.Speaking at the FBAA conference held on the Gold Coast in November, ASIC senior executive leader – deposit takers, credit & insurers, Michael Saadat announced that the regulator would turn its focus to mortgage brokers following its recent review of banks in regards to interest-only lending.Saadat has now revealed to Australian Broker that the shift in focus has come after its review of lenders found that interest-only loans through the broker channel increased by 8% over two years. “Since 2012, the proportion of interest-only loans sold through the broker channel has gone up from 49% to 57% as of the fourth...

ASIC still don’t “get it” as to who manufactures defective financial products...   ASIC turns its attention to mortgage brokers   19 November 2015 hthttp://www.smartline.com.au/2015/11/asic-turns-its-attention-to-mortgage-brokers/   Following up on its recent review of interest-only home loans provided by major lenders, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) is now moving to look into the same products provided by mortgage brokers. Michael Saadat, ASIC senior executive leader, noted that consumers were calling out for the new review after the release of the findings from the major lenders inquiry in August 2015. “Ever since publishing our report on interest-only loans and getting the lenders to agree to make the necessary changes, I keep getting asked by lenders what is ASIC doing to make sure brokers will also make changes to their processes,” Mr Saadat said, at the FBAA conference, as reported by Australian Broker Online on November 16. The recent reviews come as...

Hiding behind the law.......   Implications for ASIC after Daniels by Tim Bednall 7 November 2002 Ruling http://www.findlaw.com.au/articles/1304/implications-for-asic-after-daniels.aspx   Since the High Court decision in Yuill in 1991, ASIC has required parties that are the subject of its investigations to provide privileged information.  However, the recent High Court decision in Daniels held that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) cannot compel the production of confidential lawyer-client communications when exercising its investigative powers under the Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth).  This judgment is likely to have significant implications for ASIC investigations. The ASIC ActUnder the Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act 2001 (Cth), ASIC is given three broad investigative powers, namely:the power to conduct an examination of a person if ASIC has reasonable grounds to believe the person can give information relevant to a matter that ASIC is investigating (Part 3, Division 2); the power to give a direction requiring the production...

ASIC orders extra CBA reviews   17 December 2015 http://www.ifa.com.au/news/15520-asic-orders-extra-cba-client-reviews   Two CBA dealer groups have been ordered by ASIC to review the 6 client files of 17 advisers after a report found the groups did not have a "reasonable basis" in an initial review. Last year, the regulator appointed KordaMentha Forensic to examine the steps taken by Commonwealth Financial Planning (CFPL) and Financial Wisdom (FWL) in 2012 to identify any clients who received poor advice from "high-risk advisers". KordaMentha's second report, which ASIC released today, states that the groups took reasonable steps to identify which clients of a group of former advisers should have been included in a compensation program. It also states that CFPL and FWL took reasonable steps to identify other potentially high-risk advisers. However, KordaMentha found that the groups did not have a reasonable basis for the process they used to determine whether a group of the...

ASIC should fight online fraud faster – report By Jane Lee Sept. 9, 2015   http://www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/3339156/asic-should-fight-online-fraud-faster-report/   Corporate watchdog the Australian Securities and Investments Commission must respond to online financial crimes far more quickly, with questions raised about its ability to detect them, a parliamentary inquiry says.  Australians – especially Indigenous communities – were increasingly at risk of financial crimes ranging from money laundering and identity fraud in the digital age, a joint parliamentary committee on law enforcement has said.  Corporate and financial regulators needed to improve their ability to target and combat such crimes as a result, their report, published on Tuesday, said. The committee took a swipe at ASIC, saying it needed to deal more quickly with fast-moving internet financial scams in real time. It described ASIC's response to a scam against an unnamed credit provider, as "very tardy".  The National Financial Services Federation told the committee it took ASIC 223 days to...

ASIC not up to product intervention – lawyer   31 July 2015 Mike Taylor   http://www.moneymanagement.com.au/news/financial-planning/asic-not-product-intervention-lawyer   The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) does not have the culture or the expertise to administer product intervention powers, according to specialist financial services lawyer, Peter Bobbin. Bobbin told a panel session at the Money Management Platforms & Wraps Conference at Magenta Shores, that he believed the handing of product intervention powers to ASIC would prove problematic as it was currently structured and orientated. In doing so, Bobbin said that the consequences for ASIC were already manifesting themselves in threatened legal action against the regulator over a failed action against a company. However, ASIC commissioner, Greg Tanzer, said he believed the regulator would treat such an intervention power carefully and that it's ability to recognise product problems should not be underestimated. "We have actually shown that we are pretty good at picking losers," he said...