ASIC has banned Mr Anthony Bishop of Chelmer, Queensland, from providing financial services for eight years.

ASIC found that during the period between July 2010 to April 2014, when he was an employee representative of Westpac Financial Consultants Ltd (which is a part of the Westpac Banking Corporation), Mr Bishop was involved in the provision of inappropriate advice to clients and also involved in the failure to provide one client with a written statement of advice.

ASIC found that Mr Bishop implemented a 'one size fits all' advice strategy that

• did not tailor advice to clients' personal and financial circumstances; and
• led to clients being over insured with inappropriate level of premiums.

ASIC also found Mr Bishop to

• have made one misrepresentation concerning tax savings; and
• not be competent to provide financial services.

ASIC Deputy Chair Peter Kell said, 'Advice needs to be tailored to the client's needs and circumstances, and an advice provider must not lose sight of the needs of their client.'

Mr Bishop's behavior was reported to ASIC in May 2014.

A customer remediation process was undertaken and 29 former clients were paid a total of $1,127,543 made up of advice fees, refunds of premiums for inappropriate advice and market loss relating to investments.

Mr Bishop has applied to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) for review of ASIC's decision.

Background

This outcome is a result of ASIC's Wealth Management Project. The Wealth Management Project was established in October 2014 with the objective of lifting standards by major financial advice providers. The Wealth Management Project focuses on the conduct of the largest financial advice firms (NAB, Westpac, CBA, ANZ, AMP and Macquarie).

ASIC's work in the Wealth Management Project covers a number of areas including:

1. Working with the largest financial advice firms to address the identification and remediation of non-compliant advice; and
2. Seeking regulatory outcomes, when appropriate, against licensees and advisers.

As part of its Wealth Management Project, ASIC has banned the following advisers from the financial services industry, in addition to Mr Bishop:

•         Rommel Panganiban (16-0309MR)
•         Anthony Jason Sourris (16-270MR)
•         Sarah Kate Gardner (16-269MR)
•         Nicholas Kerr (16-260MR)
•         Craig Scott Miller (16-239MR)
•         Wayne Meadth (16-188MR)
•         Hardik Bhimani (refer: 16-124MR)
•         Gerard McCormack (overturned on appeal: 16-448MR)
•         Shane Thompson (refer:16-022MR)
•         Ben Rickman (refer:16-006MR)
•         Ben Cheung (refer: 16-004MR)
•         Mark Tidbury (refer: 15-383MR)
•         Amanda Ritchie (refer: 15-294MR)
•         Stuart Murray Jamieson (refer:15-288MR)
•         Sharnie Kent (refer: 15-286MR)
•         Alfie Chong (refer: 15-259MR)
•         Martin Hodgetts (refer: 15-218MR)
•         Shawn Hickman (refer: 15-213MR)
•         Brett O'Malley (refer: 15-121MR)
•         Brian Farber (refer: 15-178MR), and
•         Rebecca Locksley (refer: 15-070MR).

Editor's note:

This media release was updated on 20 December 2016 following notification that Mr Bishop has applied to the AAT for review of ASIC's decision.

Editor's note 2:

On 22 June 2017 the AAT advised ASIC that it had received written notification from Mr Bishop that he wanted to withdraw his review application. As a result, Mr Bishop's application for a review of ASIC's decision was dismissed by the AAT with an effective date of 22 June 2017.