On 4 September 2020, the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) banned former responsible manager Anthony 鈥楾ony鈥� David Wynd of Melbourne from performing any function involved in the engaging in of credit activities permanently, other than as an employee of an APRA-authorised approved deposit-taking institution, assisting borrowers obtain loans independently of any financial services.聽
Mr Wynd was previously the sole director and responsible manager of Financial Circle Pty Ltd (Financial Circle), a financial services and credit business. In November 2018, the Federal Court ordered Financial Circle pay $8,980,000 in total penalties after contravening financial services, credit and consumer protection laws (18-334MR).听听
The AAT鈥檚 decision follows an application by Mr Wynd for a review of ob体育鈥檚 decision in August 2019 to permanently ban him from engaging in credit activities. ob体育 determined a permanent ban was appropriate given the scope of Financial Circle鈥檚 misconduct and Mr Wynd鈥檚 connection to it.
In its decision, the AAT concluded that Financial Circle鈥檚 business activities constituted egregious breaches of minimum standards required by both the financial services and credit legislation.聽 Further, these activities exploited vulnerable consumers and made Mr Wynd鈥檚 involvement in Financial Circle, as well as his lack of insight into its flawed nature, so troubling that he should be banned from engaging in providing any credit activities permanently.
The AAT found that Mr Wynd was not the architect of the Financial Circle鈥檚 offending business model and therefore should be allowed to be employed by an APRA-authorised approved deposit-taking institution assisting borrowers obtain loans independently of financial services.
The AAT鈥檚 order was made under a new provision of the credit legislation which came into effect on 17 February 2020 under the Financial Sector Reform (Hayne Royal Commission Response鈥擲tronger Regulators (2019 Measures)) Act 2019.
Background
Mr Wynd was the responsible manager of Financial Circle from 4 August 2017 to 19 November 2018.
Financial Circle鈥檚 Australian financial services licence (AFSL) was cancelled on 19 November 2018 (18-362MR).
ob体育鈥檚 banning of Mr Wynd took effect from 13 August 2019. On 15 August 2019, Mr Wynd applied to the AAT for a review of ob体育鈥檚 decision to permanently ban him from engaging in credit activities. At that time, Mr Wynd also applied for a stay of ob体育鈥檚 decision and a stay of ob体育 issuing a media release in relation to the banning.
On 1 November 2019, the AAT refused Mr Wynd鈥檚 application for a stay of ob体育鈥檚 credit banning decision from taking effect. However, the AAT made orders prohibiting ob体育 from publishing ob体育鈥檚 decision to permanently ban Mr Wynd from engaging in credit activities until further order of the AAT. The AAT鈥檚 orders prohibiting ob体育 from publishing the decision expired on 2 October 2020, following expiry of the appeal period.
The credit banning follows ob体育鈥檚 decision to permanently ban Mr Wynd from providing financial services (20-150MR).
The banning has been recorded on ob体育's publicly available Banned and Disqualified Persons Register.