Risk Company Updates
/New dealer group launched
After four years in the making, a new dealer group making promises of saving time and money has launched. Co-founders Sam El Shamaa and Phil Alexander have opened Finchley & Kent, saying they’re lucky because they get to open afresh without legacy products and equipment holding them back.
Finchley & Kent are partnered so far with Asendium for Fact Finds for advisers and My Dealer Services for the day-to-day operation of the dealer group. The new dealer group has also partnered with SMART Compliance.
Bendigo and Adelaide Bank facing class action
A new class action has been launched against Bendigo and Adelaide Bank on behalf of investors of the Great Southern managed investment scheme. EQ Legal is setting up the class action, saying that 850 entities, ranging from self-managed superannuation funds to individuals, had expressed interest.
Great Southern was an agricultural managed investment scheme that sold loan packages, promoted under Great Southern Finance, to buy forestry and grape-growing plots that were supposedly able to produce investment returns.
Great Southern collapsed in 2009, with the loans transferred to Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, with the amounts people owed being the same. A settlement was reached in 2014 regarding a previous class action over the scheme, with a court deciding the bank had not breached any obligations. The new class action alleges that from late 2014 onwards, the bank demanded repayment of the loans, despite some court decisions finding that the loan documents may have been invalid and the borrowers were not obligated to pay.
The EQ Legal action alleges that demands made in the first class action were misleading or deceptive, and as a result, Great Southern borrowers may be able to get any repayments back made after 11 December 2014. The claim could be worth around $300 million, despite the value of the passed-on loans being more than that.
OneVue take Taiping to court
OneVue is to file proceedings against Taiping Trustees to fight for its right to around $9.4 million in sale proceeds of Madison Financial Group and Sequoia shares. OneVue has indicated it would be happier to resolve the issue out of court but wanted to achieve a resolution.
Taiping earlier asserted a claim to proceeds from Sequoia and Madison proceeds, with OneVue and receivers instructing lawyers to file claims in the Federal Court.
FOFA-related class action against AMP, CBA and Westpac
Law firm Piper Alderman has commenced a class action against the financial advisory businesses of Westpac, AMP and CBA relating to alleged breaches of consumer protection obligations laid out in the Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) reforms. The action is specifically regarding commissions from product providers, and fees charged to clients, with the class action stating the practices were in contravention of law.
Piper Alderman is targeting dealer groups operating under AMP - Hillross Financial Planning, AMP Financial Planning and Charter Financial Planning; Commonwealth Bank-owned Commonwealth Financial Planning, Financial Wisdom and Count Financial; and Westpac’s Securitor and Magnitude.
CFA Institute takes exams online
The CFA Institute is taking paper-based exams online from 2021, with the Level I already available online. The Level II and III will soon be online too. The Level I exam will be offered four times per year, while the Level II and III exams will be offered twice per year.
