Australian financial services licensee Kalkine Pty Limited must appoint an independent compliance consultant to address ob体育 concerns that Kalkine's customer service representatives were giving unlicensed advice.
New licence conditions have been imposed on Kalkine鈥檚 Australian financial services (AFS) licence to ensure compliance with its obligations as an AFS licensee. These conditions require Kalkine to engage a consultant to review, assess and report to ob体育 whether Kalkine鈥檚 interactions with its customers are compliant and its supervision mechanisms are adequate.
Where shortfalls are identified, the independent compliance consultant will make recommendations to address the deficiencies which must be implemented by Kalkine.
ob体育 Deputy Chair Sarah Court said, 鈥楢FS licensees are responsible for the conduct of their representatives and must have adequate supervision arrangements in place to ensure their representatives comply with the law when engaging with customers.
鈥楢s a result of our investigation we remain concerned that Kalkine fell short in meeting its obligations, leading ob体育 to take the significant step of imposing new licence conditions. Kalkine will now undergo an external review to ensure it acts lawfully and within the scope of its licence鈥�.
ob体育 had concerns that:
- Kalkine鈥檚 representatives, who are based in India, may have provided personal advice as part of the sale of subscription services when Kalkine鈥檚 AFS licence only authorised it to provide general financial product advice,
- Kalkine鈥檚 representatives may have misrepresented to customers the kind of advice being given, by qualifying this as general advice but leaving customers with the impression that the advice was directed to their own personal circumstances,
- Kalkine failed to do all things necessary to ensure that the financial services covered by its AFS licence were provided efficiently, honestly and fairly including but not limited to ensuring the advice being given by its representatives was appropriate and within the scope of its licence, and聽
- Kalkine鈥檚 processes to ensure that its representatives were complying with the law when interacting with consumers were inadequate.
Kalkine agreed to the new licence conditions being imposed.
Background
Kalkine is a Sydney-based financial services group which provides equity research reports through a subscription service available on its website.鈥疘t has held AFS licence 425376 since 11 September 2012, allowing it to provide general advice only.
鈥痺ebsite provides useful information for consumers about general and personal financial advice.