The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC ) announced this Thursday that it has extended the suspension of the Australian financial services (AFS) licence held by BBY Limited, a former stockbroking, corporate advisory and asset management firm.
The AFS licence has been suspended until the 30th of June 2021, the regulator said in its statement. The suspension was effective from the 27th of Mar 2020. The company’s licence was originally suspended on the 28th of May 2015 for a period of three years.
ASIC has decided to suspend the licence so that clients of BBY continue to have access to an external dispute resolution scheme and to the National Guarantee Fund.
Furthermore, the suspension allows the receivers and liquidators to retain the legal authority to transfer a client’s “holder identification number” to another market participant, based on the instructions of the client.
In addition, the Australian watchdog said in its statement today that it has extended the suspension: “to ensure BBY continues to be required to have arrangements for compensating retail clients for loss or damages suffered as a result of breaches of the Corporations Act by the companies or their representatives.”
ASIC suspended the AFS licence of BBY back in 2015 after Stephen Vaughan and Ian Hall were appointed as joint administrators to the company on the 17th of May 2015. The next day, Steven Parbery and Brett Lord were appointed receivers and managers of BBY.
The initial three-year suspension was extended by the Australian authority on the 27th of May 2019, prolonging it until the 31st of May this year. BBY can seek a review of ASIC’s decision at the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
ASIC increases market monitoring
In recent months, ASIC has been increasingly suspending and cancelling AFS licences. Earlier this year in February, as Finance Magnates reported, ASIC was granted new powers which allow it to cancel both AFS licences and Australian Credit Licences (ACL) if the licensee does not begin its operations within six months of the licence being granted.
