ASIC

Macquarie Private Wealth, a retail division of Macquarie Group (ASX:MQG), has been found by the Australian financial watchdog ASIC (Australian Securities & Investments Commission) to have compliance deficiencies and have found that a significant number of advisers have breached compliance.

• Four year covert surveillance by ASIC found that Macquarie Private Wealth (MPW) failed to give proper advice to clients and failed to keep proper client records.

ASIC (Australian Securities and Investments Commission), Australia’s corporate watchdog, is warning that many retail traders and investors as well as investors utilising self-managed superannuation funds (SMSF) are risking to be financially devastated by investing in high risk investments called CFDs (Contracts For Difference).

ASIC is cracking down on brokers - with the vision of having them disclose any connections - or fees that they receive from companies they review in their research notes. Given the recent events and news from Citigroup and the Westpoint collapse, ASIC has called for submissions to a discussion paper detailing case studies of examples where there has been conflicts of interest. In the discussion paper, ASIC presents how retail and wholesale financial advisers and fund managers in their research reports currently manage their conflicts of interest.