ASIC bans broker for eight years for providing unlicensed financial services
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has banned a former Queensland mortgage broker from the business.
ASIC banned Christine Betty Childs, of Sunshine Coast, Queensland, from providing financial services for eight years.
Childs is the former director of Think Money and Think Money Wealth Through Property. Both companies have collapsed in the past few years, with Think Money Wealth Through Property being placed into external administration in July of 2017 and Think Money going into administration in November 2020.
Childs was banned for running an unlicensed financial services business in recommending that clients buy property through their superannuation, including recommending that they roll over their existing superannuation into self-managed superannuation funds.
ASIC said that this conduct “misled or deceived” Childs’ clients, who “reasonably assumed” that she was appropriately licensed to give this kind of advice.
Creditor losses
ASIC also found that Childs was involved in Think Money’s failure to abide by an Australian Financial Complaints Authority order to pay compensation to one of the company’s clients. ASIC determined that Childs “played a significant role in the disposal of the company’s trail book of commissions” prior to the company entering liquidation. This resulted in Think Money creditors suffering loss because of the reduced money available for distribution, ASIC said.
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“The ban prevents Mrs Childs from providing financial services, controlling an entity that carries on a financial services business, and performing any function involved in carrying on a financial services business,” ASIC said.
Childs has the right to appeal the decision to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
Childs’ banning has been recorded on ASIC’s banned and disqualified register.
ASIC is also looking into larger matters. The Australian Consumer and Competition Commission recently announced that it would work closely with ASIC in a probe of how banks set interest rates for savers, including the difference between rate increases for deposits and home loans. In December, ASIC initiated court proceedings against Finder Wallet for allegedly providing unlicensed financial services.
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