Following concerns raised by ob体育, Formax International Market Limited (Formax) has removed a previously published media release from its group website that falsely claimed its wholly owned subsidiary, Australian Capital Markets Advisory Services Pty Ltd ACN 150 530 331 (ACMAS), had its Australian financial services licence (AFSL) suspended as part of a normal practice that occurs whenever an enterprise restructures. The release also claimed that the suspension will be lifted once the restructure had been finalised.
The suspension by ob体育 of an AFSL is not a normal practice that occurs when an entity restructures.
ob体育 Commissioner Cathie Armour said, 'ob体育 undertakes all action for good reason. It is important that industry and investors understand those reasons. In this case we were concerned to discover an overseas parent commenting in a way that misrepresented the action ob体育 had taken and was likely to mislead investors.'聽
Background
On 4 August 2015, ob体育 suspended the AFSL of retail OTC derivative provider ACMAS until 30 October 2015 on the ground that it had ceased to provide financial services in this jurisdiction. The suspension was subsequently extended to 27 November 2015.
This work continues ob体育's focus on the retail OTC derivative sector, including margin FX and binary options.
Recent outcomes include:
- Following ob体育's concerns Ingot Brokers (Australia) Pty Ltd rectifying its 'cash and cash equivalents' arrangements to comply with its financial resource requirements (refer: ).
- O.C.M. Online Capital Markets Pty Ltd paying 聽$30,600 in penalties after ob体育 issued three infringement notices for false or misleading online advertising (refer: ).
- cancelling the Australian financial service licence (AFSL) of LSG Group Pty Ltd (refer:聽).
- British Virgin Island company FIBO Group Limited and Cyprus company, Trading Point of Financial Instruments Limited (also known by the trading name XM.com), agreeing to cease providing unlicensed financial services to Australians (refer:聽).
- suspending the AFS licence of Australian Capital Advisory Services Pty Ltd on the grounds it had ceased providing financial services after a change of control (refer:聽).
- following an investigation, Advanced Markets agreeing to change potential misleading statements on its website (refer:聽).
- following an investigation, suspending the AFS licence of FX provider AGM Markets Pty Ltd (AGM) (refer:聽).
- warning investors not to deal with Grandegoldens, which was not licensed to trade in margin FX in Australia (refer:聽).
- cancelling Enfinium鈥檚 AFSL because, among other things, concerns around inadequate risk management systems (refer:聽).
- following a surveillance, Calibre Investment changing the way it offers FX services to retail clients (refer:聽).
- restraining Monarch FX and its former director and general manager, Quinten Hunter, from carrying on a financial services business (refer:聽).
- shutting down Vault Market and removing its sole director, Mr MD Anamul Amin, from the financial services industry (refer:聽).
- warning investors not to deal with YoutradeFX which was not licensed to trade in margin FX in Australia (refer:聽).
- Pepperstone agreeing to stop providing financial services in Japan following inquiries by ob体育 that revealed they were not licensed by the Japanese Financial Services Agency (refer:聽).
- cancelling the AFSL of online FX broker Global Derivative Services after an investigation found it failed to comply with a number of its licence obligations (refer:聽).