The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC ) announced this Tuesday that it has banned Mark Schroeder, a former director of Spectrum Wealth Advisers Pty Ltd (Spectrum), from providing financial services for six years.
The statement published by the Aussie regulator said that it banned Schroeder from providing financial services for his role in numerous compliance failures by Spectrum, of which he was a director, chief executive officer, responsible manager and a key person for the company.
Schroeder was the most senior management of Spectrum and was responsible for the day-to-day management of the firm. As part of its surveillance, the watchdog found that he was involved in the company’s contraventions of financial services laws.
ASIC: Schroeder is likely to violate laws again
Because of this and his poor understanding of the Obligations of financial service providers, the Australian regulator believes that he is likely to violate financial services law in the future, hence the ban.
When ASIC was looking into the company, the authority found that Spectrum didn’t take reasonable steps to make sure that its representatives were complying with the law. Furthermore, the firm didn’t provide regular training to make sure its representatives were adequately trained.
On top of all of this, the statement provided by ASIC said that it found that Spectrum also did not have sufficient human and technological resources to meet its license obligations.
Commenting on the announcement, ASIC Commissioner Danielle Press said in the statement: “ASIC expects that people holding a position of responsibility with an AFS licensee, particularly directors and responsible managers, understand the obligations of financial services providers and make every effort to ensure compliance.”
During its investigation, ASIC notified Spectrum that it was considering suspending the firm’s Australian Financial Services (AFS) license, which led to the company advising the authority on the 30th of May 2019 that it would seek to cancel its AFS license voluntarily.
Schroeder is continuing to seek a review of ASIC’s decision at the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
