The Administrative Appeals Tribunal has affirmed decisions by ASIC to cancel the Australian financial services (AFS) licences of Mark Raymund Power and Mark Power Financial Pty Ltd (MPF); and to refuse a licence application made by Global Financial Markets Pty Ltd (GFM).
On 14 November 2011 ASIC cancelled the licences of Mr Power and MPF.
The Tribunal stated that the licences should have been cancelled in order to protect the public and achieve the purposes of the legislation. The Tribunal found that Mr Power and MPF failed to comply with their obligations under the Corporations Law on multiple occasions and there were reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Power and MPF would be likely to contravene their obligations in the future.
On 20 August 2013 GFM applied to ASIC for a new AFS licence. Mr Power was the sole director of GFM. On 10 July 2014 this application was refused by ASIC.
The Tribunal found that a licence must not be granted to GFM, as it was not satisfied that GFM will comply with its obligations.
The Tribunal determined that Mr Power failed to demonstrate the level of knowledge and skills required to be a responsible manager, and still failed to understand his obligations under the financial services laws.
The Tribunal stated that “Mr Power’s past contraventions whilst operating in the financial services sector were serious indiscretions. He was motivated by the pecuniary benefits that flowed to him from appointing authorised representatives, but he was not prepared to honour his obligations with respect to the supervision and monitoring of those representatives from whom he received significant monthly payments“.
In addition, the Tribunal found that Mr Power himself had engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct.
Mr Power has 28 days in which to appeal the decision.