ASIC has banned Mr Atish Prasad, a former financial adviser of Westmead, Sydney from providing financial services for three years.

ASIC found Mr Prasad was not adequately trained or competent to provide a financial service. In addition, ASIC found Mr Prasad failed to comply with the financial services laws.

In particular, Mr Prasad failed to:

• maintain adequate records of his advice
• provide a Statement of Advice (SOA) within the required timeframe
• provide a SOA that adequately set out information about the basis on which the advice was given
• provide appropriate replacement product advice

The misconduct occurred between June 2013 and December 2013. At the time of the misconduct, Mr Prasad was an authorised representative of Lionsgate Financial Group Pty Ltd.

ASIC Deputy chairman Peter Kell said, 'This case highlights the importance of record keeping by advisers. Financial advisers must keep accurate and up to date records detailing a client's circumstances and the advice given. These records provide an explanation to the client as to why the advice was provided. They are also integral to enabling the licensee to comply with its obligations to ensure that its representatives provide advice that is in the best interests of the client.'

Mr Prasad has the right to appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for a review of ASIC's decision.

Background

In 2013, ASIC imposed licence conditions on Lionsgate Financial Group Pty Ltd (Lionsgate), due to concerns that it was not complying with its general obligations as an AFS licensee (refer: 13-042MR).

Resourcing to meet record keeping obligations was  a key consideration for ASIC  in the imposing of the licence conditions.

Editor's note:

On 15 May 2015, Mr Prasad appealed this decision at the AAT.

Editor's note 2:

On 8 June 2016, the AAT decided to vary ASIC's decision to ban Mr Prasad from providing financial services and reduced the term of the ban from three years to 18 months. (Refer: 16-195MR)