In a statement, ASIC said the new conditions had been placed on AxiCorp Financial Services’ licence “to ensure that AxiCorp has adequate compliance arrangements in place for its over the counter (OTC) derivatives business”.
Under the additional licence conditions, AxiCorp must appoint an independent expert to assess whether it has adequate procedures and controls in place to ensure compliance with its regulatory obligations, and identify remedial actions for the company to implement, which it must set out in a plan to ASIC.
Additionally, AxiCorp must maintain a minimum of three full-time compliance staff and must not appoint any Corporate Authorised Representatives until 31 December 2022.
ASIC said the company must also provide ASIC with an attestation from a senior executive that they are satisfied that AxiCorp has undertaken all necessary remedial actions and has in place adequate compliance measures to ensure its compliance with financial services laws.
“If the executive attestation is not provided by the time required, AxiCorp is required to take all necessary steps to cease on-boarding new customers and not charge customers commission or other fees for financial services provided by AxiCorp in Australia for as long as the attestation remains outstanding,” ASIC said.
The news comes after ASIC had suspended AxiCorp’s licence for four months in January after finding several compliance breaches, including that the company had failed to pay client money into the properly authorised accounts, comply with client money reporting rules and lodge product dislosure in-use notices with ASIC.
AxiCorp applied for and was granted a stay of ASIC’s suspension with the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, following which the parties agreed on the additional licence conditions in place of the suspension.
