ASIC has banned Rodney Peters, of Mudgeeraba, Queensland, from providing financial services for 6 years.

An ASIC delegate found Mr Peters represented to clients that he had authority to engage in discretionary trading when this was not the case.

Mr Peters was previously a director of Australian Share Registry Pty Ltd (ASR), and both he and ASR were authorised representatives of Pulse Markets Pty Ltd (Pulse) between March 2015 and May 2016.

Pulse was not authorised to engage in discretionary trading (but only to provide general advice and to trade in equities (options) and derivatives).

The delegate determined that Mr Peters, in engaging in excess of 1,000 options trades on behalf of a number of clients between April 2015 and April 2016, had not complied with financial services law. In particular, Mr Peters:

• conducted options trading on behalf of his clients on a discretionary basis, doing so without their authorisation and in breach of his authorisation from Pulse, and
• by his conduct, represented to his clients that he was authorised to engage in discretionary trading when he did not in fact have authority to do so.

ASIC found that Mr Peters was aware that he could not engage in discretionary trading but decided to do so, and further that his conduct was likely to cause clients to assume that he did have authority to engage in this kind of trading.

ASIC’s decision reflects its intention to remove from the industry financial advisors who do not comply with the law, so consumers can make more confident and informed decisions about their financial dealings.

Mr Peters has the right to appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for a review of ASIC’s decision.