Hollard Insurance sued for serious claim handling failures – April 11, 2025
Hollard Insurance has been sued for seriously failing to handle a customer insurance claim, which took almost three and a half years to resolve.
The claim was made on October 31, 2021, after a major storm damaged the roof of a couple’s home. Yet they had to wait 18 months for their claim to be rejected. Hollard first accepted the claim, then repeatedly delayed decisions about repairs, and then took over nine months to begin an inspection by a structural engineer. Hollard also delayed providing temporary accommodation to the affected couple.
ASIC alleges that the company breached its duty of good faith in handing the claim, as well as ignoring expert advice when it relied on a “non-expert opinion over prior expert reports on the cause of the damage.”
“Because of the excessive delays by Hollard and the failure to undertake make-safe works, the home has become so riddled with moisture, mould, and decay that it is uninhabitable and now needs to be demolished and rebuilt”
Sarah Court, Deputy Chair, ASIC
The couple was offered a modest cash settlement which they rejected, and then lodged a complaint to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority.
ASIC seeks declarations and a civil penalty.
Michael Steele pleads guilty to fraud – April 10, 2025
Michael Steele, a former Gold Coast property developer, has pleaded guilty to four rolled-up counts of fraud from misappropriation of over A$1.3m ($803,804) of investor funds from companies he controlled – violating section 408C(1)(a)(i) of the Criminal Code (Qld).
Steele used the funds from 14 investors for personal use, such as buying motor vehicles and a residential property.
In September 2020, Steele was also disqualified from managing corporations for five years.
Falcon Capital and the First Guardian Master Fund to be wound up – April 10, 2025
The Federal Court has appointed liquidators to wind up Falcon Capital Limited and the First Guardian Master Fund plus related unregistered subsidiary funds.
The Court has also ordered appointed a receiver to the property of David Anderson, a director of Falcon.
The actions come after concerns about the management and operation of First Guardian. These included failing to recognise conflicts of interests, and the potential risks to investors in the form of alleged misleading information about the security of their investment and likely returns.
Earlier in February, ASIC also obtained interim orders to freeze the assets of Falcon Capital Limited, the First Guardian Master Fund and David Anderson in order to protect investor funds while an investigation is ongoing.
Penalty for three advice licensees
In February, three separate infringement notices of A$31,300 ($18,984) were sent to three AFS licensees whose financial advisers provided personal advice while not being registered.
The infringement notices were paid by:
- March 5: Australian Advice Network Pty Ltd;
- March 21: IA Advice Pty Ltd; and
- March 24: Sherrin Partners Services Pty Ltd.
Each of the AFS licensees went immediately to register their financial adviser and breach after becoming aware of events, which ASIC took into account when deciding on the penalty.
ASIC news weeks 14–15
Consultation on increasing visibility of breach and complaints data
With ASIC’s work to enhance transparency and accountability, the Commission is now consulting on plans to publish two dashboards in the second half of 2025 containing firm-level Reportable Situations and Internal Dispute Resolution data.
ASIC said publishing the data would support the objectives of both regimes by:
- boosting transparency and accountability to encourage improved behavior and increase confidence in the financial system;
- pointing out areas of notable breaches and complaints; and
- helping deliver better consumer outcomes by enabling firms to target improvements in their compliance and consumer outcomes, as well as firm performance.
“Publishing Reportable Situations and Internal Dispute Resolution data will encourage firms to lift their game. It also provides consumers and investors access to this data at firm level, further encouraging confident and informed participation in the financial system,” said ASIC Commissioner Alan Kirkland.
Feedback can be submitted until May 14.
95 scam companies shut down
The Federal Court has granted an application to wind-up 95 companies that ASIC has found to be connected to online investment and romance baiting scams, so-called ‘pig butchering’ scams.
Besides the take down, the Commission is also sending out a warning to consumers to remain vigilant when engaging with investment websites and mobile applications, as scammers will continue on with new sites even though some are taken down.
“These scams are like hydras: you shut down one and two more take its place. That’s why we’re warning consumers that the threat of scams and identity fraud remains high. We remind consumers to be vigilant,” said ASIC Deputy Chair Sarah Court.
ASIC recently released its enforcement and regulatory update, July to December 2024, in which the authority announced it had removed a total of 10,240 scam sites, an average of 130 a week.
Death claims handling failures
Multiple failures in handling death benefit claims are uncovered in a new report by the Commission. The findings showcase excessive delays, poor customer service, and ineffective claims handling procedures in Australia’s superannuation industry. ASIC is calling it a “landmark death benefit claims handling report,” and has handed down a list of 34 recommendations after findings of multiple failings around death benefit claims handling among industry trustees.
March 2025 financial adviser exam results
Of the 241 people taking the 28th Financial Advisers Exam cycle exam:
- 73.4% (177) passed, and
- 72.6% (175) took the exam for the first time.
To date, 21,812 individuals have taken the exam, with over 20,237 (92%) people passing it. The next exam will be on June 5, 2025.
RBA and ASIC issue joint letter to ASX
Following the CHESS batch settlement failure incident on December 20, 2024, ASIC and the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) have issued a joint letter expressing increasing worry over the management of operational risk at ASX.
The letter addresses deep concern about the potential for operational incidents, such as this recent failure, to affect the ability of the CHESS system to reliably service the equities market until CHESS is replaced. It also highlighted the regulator’s concern about ASX’s remediation actions after the incident, and urges AX to prioritize immediate remediation of the issues, otherwise further regulatory actions could be taken.
“It is deeply disappointing that the regulators need to take these actions today. But they are necessary,” said RBA Governor Michele Bullock.
ASX’s CHESS replacement project has been a long-running saga, during which ASIC took ASX to the Federal Court in August 2024 for not being truthful about the replacement project’s progress.
Sustainability reporting regulatory guide
Following a consultation, ASIC has now published Regulatory Guide 280 Sustainability reporting, which provides guidance for entities that are required to prepare a sustainability report containing climate-related financial information under Chapter 2M of the Corporations Act 2001. Those affected entities may include companies, registered schemes, registrable superannuation entities, and retail corporate collective investment vehicles.
The new sustainability reporting requirements commenced on January 1, and the new guide includes guidance on:
- which entities are required to prepare a sustainability report;
- which information is needed for the report;
- how to disclose sustainability-related financial information outside the report (such as in disclosure documents and product disclosure statements); and
- the Commission’s administration of reporting requirements, including the approach to considering relief and use its new directions power.
“The publication of RG 280 is a critical piece that supports the implementation of these sustainability reporting requirements passed by the Australian Parliament. We will continue to expand our broader suite of publications related to sustainability reporting over time as market practices evolve,” said ASIC Commissioner Kate O’Rourke.
Speech
“A precious national asset”, that was how ASIC Commissioner Kate O’Rourke described the Commission’s publicly accessible datasets in her keynote speech at the 11th Annual Australian Government Data Governance Summit on April 2.
There, she addressed how the many databases comprise a central pillar of the Australian economic infrastructure, both used for consumer protection and as well as supporting businesses. And that they are used a lot by many.
During the last financial year, the data bases had 343 million searches across them, including 3.1 million updates, and more than 303,000 new companies and 386,000 new business names were registered, Court explained.
“Our national asset isn’t visible, it’s digital. But, like these other monuments, it’s a testament to the Australian economy, how we run it and some of our values – and the way our economy thrives.”
She disclosed that the Commission is also adding some new data bases, as well improving some of its existing datasets.
“We really want the data we’ve got to be robust and accessible,” Court said, and added that they “also want to make it simpler for people to comply with their obligations in giving us information – and also in understanding it.”
New scam alerts
ASIC has recently become aware of multiple scams, trying to impersonate the Commission via emails, texts and phone calls where payments to release funds or assets are requested.
Two other scams have now been noticed, with one appearing on text messages, where scammers are trying to trick consumers to believe that they are dealing with the Commission. Even though the alpha tag (which are used to display the name of the sender instead of the phone number), display ASIC, the regulator says it does not communicate via text messages.
Another new scam involves fraudsters trying to impersonate ASIC Connect with new fake websites.
ASIC says that the scammers are setting these fake pages up to trick consumers into revealing sensitive personal information about themselves, and urges users to be aware of the legitimate sites: asicconnect.asic.gov.au and connectonline.asic.gov.au.
