Scrutiny of Financial Advice
Submission 106
1
1-12-2014
SUBMISSION to the SENATE ECONOMIC INQUIRY
Att Senator Sam Dastyari,
Dear Sir,
My submission relates to having forgery investigated, after a complaint was
lodged to COSL and the CTTT, where a Mortgage Manager for the Macquarie
Bank produced forged documents with inflated incomes to a COSL enquiry and
then provided a false statutory declaration and false evidence denying any
wrongdoing, to a CTTT hearing.
A very strong forensic document obtained after the hearings from original
documents that were not available previously, will not be considered by COSL,
the CTTT, ASIC, the OMSBUDSMAN and the MACQUARIE BANK, with various
reasons being given why the matter cannot be further investigated..
Forgery is a serious offence, , but at present there is no independent EDR
willing to investigate it and the offenders are going unpunished.
My reply to the Terms of Reference follow.
Yours Sincerely,
Gary White
Scrutiny of Financial Advice
Submission 106
1-12-2014
SUBMISSION to the SENATE ECONOMIC COMMITTEE
Terms of reference
(A) The current level of consumer protection ; is not protecting consumers
of financial products. Losses have been immense. Forgery has been
rampant yet ASIC, COS, FOS and the CTTT will not investigate forgery.
(B) The role of, and oversight by, regulatory agencies in preventing the
provision of unethical and misleading financial advice ; the banks and
financial advisers are being encouraged to provide false statutory
declarations and false testimony at EDR hearings to prevent penalties..
Even when the consumer has evidence proving such ASIC, COS, FOS and
the CTTT all quote reasons why they cannot reinvestigate. Complaints to
the Ombudsman are a waste of resources.
(C) Whether existing mechanisms are appropriate in any compensation
process relating to unethical or misleading financial advice and
instances where these mechanisms have failed; existing mechanisms
are not adequate . There is no mechanism at present to have forgery
investigated outside the court system. Forgery and perjury are criminal
offences punishable by imprisonment. Yet the financial service providers
have legal advisers that are very adept at avoiding these penalties.
Unless honesty and accountability becomes paramount in any
complaint or investigation, the mechanisms will be compromised.
ASIC,FOS,COS and the CTTT can’t be that naïve, not to see the obvious
yet they choose to ignore such.
(D) Mechanisms, including a centralised register, that would ensure
financial planners found to have breached any law or professional
standards in their employment are transparent, for both the sector and
consumers; ASIC has failed badly and is happy to work with the financial
institutions with enforceable undertakings rather than enforcing the law.
A register should be kept by an independent body and any person or
organization on the register should be banned from further practice. You
will never clean up the industry unless you send a strong message, you
make them accountable.
Scrutiny of Financial Advice
Submission 106
(E) How financial service providers and companies have responded to
misconduct in the industry ; they have supported encouraged it. When
a genuine complaint is made relating to misleading conduct, fraud or
forgery these service providers and organizations use their powerful
legal advisers to defend any wrong doing. It is obvious that this only
encourages further dishonesty within the industry and breeds contempt
for the legislation.
(F) Other regulatory or legislative reforms that would prevent misconduct
; this would be easily achieved . Any financial product that is provided by
a financial service provider that contains false incomes, falsified details
and forged signatures, provided by the financial service provider, their
employee or agent be made void or rescinded, with all commissions paid
and interest received to be refunded .. This legislation should be made
retrospective. If the financial service provider did not provide the false
information then the person or persons responsible would be liable for
any losses to the financial service provider.
(G) Related matters : until the matter of forgery can be investigated and
acted upon by an independent body that is not financially prohibitive to
the consumer, the Financial Institutions will never be made accountable.
Rules of FOS, COSL and the CTTT state that where a matter has been
ruled on by one of tribunals then a complaint cannot be made to
another tribunal and in any event at present they cannot rule on forgery.
As far as ASIC goes they just give reasons why it is not in the public
interest to investigate and the Ombudsman only rules on wrong doings
and cannot reverse the decision of ASIC, wasting a lot of resources for
nothing achieved.
There should be a Royal Commission .
Yours Sincerely,
Gary White