ASIC Assignment of Investigators “Like Sending a Child to Compete in the Hunger Games”

If the corporate regulator wants to be known as the tough cop on the beat, it needs to do a lot better than the velvet touch it meted out to financial services giant IOOF following a 12-month investigation into its scandal-ridden research unit. On the day the Turnbull government looks set to scrape back in, ASIC, via a press release, identified a number of serious concerns in IOOF’s research division including compliance arrangements, breach reporting, management of conflicts of interest, staff trading policy, disclosure, whistleblower management and protection and cyber security. The core function of any financial services company is to ensure proper compliance and disclosure. Financial institutions have a social licence and therefore a requirement to protect the public. It means they have to be whiter than white.