Michael Dunjey charged with 33 criminal offences – May 9, 2025
Michael Dunjey, director of Ascent Investment and Coaching Pty Ltd, has been charged with 33 criminal offences:
- 23 counts of fraudulently obtaining a benefit connected to more than A$4m in investor funds – violating section 409 of the Criminal Code 1913 (WA);
- 5 counts of failing to act in good faith relating to the use under A$2.5m ($1.6m)– violating section 184 of the Corporations Act 2001; and
- 5 counts of falsifying books connected to the company’s annual returns – violating section 1307 of the Corporations Act 2001.
Additional conditions on Macquarie Bank – May 7, 2025
Additional conditions have been imposed on Macquarie Bank Limited after “multiple and significant compliance failures” relating to its futures dealing business and over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives trade reporting.
Some of the failures went undetected for many years, including one that went on for a decade.
With the imposed additional licence conditions, Macquarie will be required to:
- establish a remediation plan to address the failures in its futures dealing business and OTC derivatives trade reporting functions, including their root causes;
- arrange for an independent expert to review the adequacy of the remediation plan and report on it; and
- have an expert assess the operational effectiveness of its remediation activities to tackle similar issues in the future.
“Our intervention underscores our concern with the recurrent nature of Macquarie’s failures, which were caused by ineffective supervision and weak compliance and control management.”
Simone Constant, ASIC Commissioner
In September 2024, Macquarie Bank was hit with a record fine of A$4.995m ($3.4m) by the Markets Disciplinary Panel for breaching market integrity rules in its role of market gatekeeper.
The bank was found to have failed in preventing suspicious orders being placed by three clients on the electricity futures market on 50 different occasions between January and September 2022.
Court updates
HCF Life fined A$750,000 – May 8, 2025
HCF Life Insurance Company Pty Limited has been ordered to pay a pecuniary penalty of A$750,000 ($480,726) by the Federal Court for a misleading contract term, and has agreed to amend the disclosures on its website.
The misleading term was found in four of the company’s policies under HCF Life’s ‘Recover’ range of products.
According to Justice Jackman of the Federal Court, the company had no intention to mislead customers, yet “the contravening conduct should be regarded as objectively serious.”
In October 2024, the company was found to have mislead the public with a ‘pre-existing condition’ term in three contracts under a range of products.
Jackman dismissed allegations that the term was an unfair contract term under the Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act 2001.
ASIC news week 19
New AFS portal
As reported earlier, a new digital portal to apply for an Australian financial services (AFS) licence is now live.
Key changes to the new portal include better user experience such as:
- automatic pre-filling of application details;
- no longer needing to separately upload additional documentation; and
- the selection of financial products and services at a more granular level.
New regulatory guidance to support BNPL industry reforms
A new regulatory guide, RG 281 Low cost credit contracts, has been published ahead of new laws coming into effect on June 10 in order to help buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) providers understand their obligations.
“These reforms are an important step to improve protection for Australian consumers who use buy now pay later products,” said ASIC Commissioner Alan Kirkland.
Kirkland also urged BNPL providers who do not have the appropriate credit licence to apply for one otherwise they could be engaging in unlicensed conduct if they continue to operate after June 10.
