ASIC has banned Todd Erwin Butler, a former Sydney based St George Bank employee, from providing financial services and engaging in credit activity for five years.

ASIC’s investigation found that Mr Butler wrote 44 valueless cheques from his personal account over a five year period, from 2012 to 2017, totalling just over $410,000. Mr Butler made two home loan applications in late 2017 and early 2018, that were declined as the bank identified false documents had been provided in support of both applications and for one application the liabilities were understated.  ASIC was concerned that one of the valueless cheques enabled Mr Butler to present an untrue asset position to a bank to attempt to obtain the benefit of a bank loan.

Mr Butler accepted that he signed a loan document which showed an untrue asset position and wrote cheques knowing that the bank account may not have had that amount of money in it. Mr Butler’s conduct was limited to financial mismanagement of his own affairs, not of clients.

Specifically, ASIC found that Mr Butler:

• did not provide truthful information about his personal financial position to two banks when applying for home loans;
• failed to acknowledge the financial benefit he obtained by presenting valueless cheques; and
• demonstrated conduct in his own financial affairs which is inappropriate and unfitting for a person engaging in credit activities or financial services.

ASIC determined that two bans, one from engaging in credit activity and a second one from the provision of financial services were appropriate given Mr Butler’s experience in the financial industry and the likelihood that he would contravene a financial services law or credit law in the future.

The banning orders for Mr Butler have been recorded on ASIC’s Banned and Disqualified Register.

Mr Butler has the right to appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for a review of ASIC's decisions.

Background

Mr Butler was employed as a Business Development Manager for St George Bank, a division of Westpac Bank Corporation, from March 2016 to May 2018. He worked at various other financial institutes in the 23 years prior, including HSBC Bank, Firstmac, Centre Point Lending Solutions and National Mortgage Company, but is not currently working in the financial industry.