The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has brought proceedings against insurance company OnePath Life, marking the first time the corporate regulator is seeking financial penalties for an alleged failure to act with utmost good faith during claims handling.
ASIC has taken American Express Australia to court over two credit cards co-branded with department store David Jones which the regulator alleges customers mistakenly believed were loyalty cards.
A judge has set aside a tribunal’s decision not to disqualify a SMSF auditor for breaching independence rules, finding the tribunal had failed to consider general deterrence.
Vanguard Investments has coughed up almost $40,000 for allegedly misleading investors about funds that purportedly did not invest in companies that sell or manufacture tobacco.
ASIC has lost a case accusing the Commonwealth Bank of Australia of hitting customers with $55 million in unauthorised fees, with a judge finding that nearly 1 million customers charged the fees should have known that even banks “sometimes make mistakes”.
Payday lenders BHF Solutions and Cigno are fighting ASIC’s bid for an injunction barring them from breaching consumer credit laws, with BHF claiming it should not be exposed to contempt.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has placed interim stop orders on two crypto funds distributed by Perpetual Investment Management Limited, citing the need to protect retail clients from investing in risky, volatile funds.
Fintech company Block Earner has been hit with enforcement action by the corporate regulator alleging it sold crypto asset products without a licence and operated an unregistered managed investment scheme.
ASIC is seeking $7.5 million in penalties against failed ACBF Funeral Plans and parent company Youpla Group for misrepresenting to customers that it was Indigenous-owned and falsely claiming that its products were specifically beneficial to First Nations people.
The High Court has turned down the appeal of the former Blue Star Helium CEO who was hit with a $40,000 penalty and four-year ban after the company failed to disclose to shareholders the identity of the buyer behind a botched sale of Texas oil assets.