Compliance & Ethics

ASIC has banned Garry Crole, former director and responsible manager of Interprac Financial Planning and former Sequoia Financial Group CEO, from financial services director and responsible manager roles for 10 years. The ban stems from his failure to respond to known concerns about authorized representatives' advice models and inadequate oversight of the approved product list, which included the now-collapsed First Guardian and Shield Master Funds. This action underscores ASIC's continued focus on individual accountability for licensee oversight failures connected to superannuation advice misconduct.

The FCA has issued a clone firm warning regarding "nevexglobal," an unauthorized entity falsely claiming to represent the genuine, FCA-recognized Global New Discovery Fund. Compliance teams at financial institutions should note this alert to update fraud-prevention monitoring, client-facing warnings, and due diligence checks against fraudulent entities exploiting legitimate firm credentials.

The FCA's latest quarterly Mortgage Charter data shows a drop in early rate lock-ins (381,364 in Q2 2026 versus 499,271 in Q1 2026), alongside a modest rise in temporary payment relief measures. Compliance teams at the 47 signatory lenders should review their data collection and reporting processes given the FCA's acknowledgment of data quality limitations and inconsistent methodologies across firms.

The FCA has released its September 2026 edition of the Mortgage Lending and Administration Return (MLAR) statistics, covering Q2 2026 data alongside full historical archives dating back to 2007. While this is a routine statistical publication rather than a new policy requirement, it provides compliance and risk teams with benchmarking data essential for market analysis, prudential reporting validation, and regulatory trend monitoring.

The High Court has issued a consent order staying the FCA's enforcement proceedings against Huobi Global S.A. and associated unknown operators of the HTX crypto exchange until 22 September 2026 to allow settlement negotiations. If no settlement is reached by that date, standard Civil Procedure Rules will govern the litigation's resumption, with no costs awarded to either party at this stage.

ASIC issued six infringement notices totaling AUD $118,800 to Australian Retirement Trust, Telstra Super (now Tetra Servicing), and AMIST after a targeted website review found inaccurate representations about investment option composition, asset allocation, and performance objectives. The action demonstrates ASIC's intensified scrutiny of superannuation trustee digital disclosures and signals that discrepancies between website content and formal disclosure documents (like PDS/Investment Guides) will trigger enforcement even when underlying governing documents are accurate.

The FCA's Q2 2026 mortgage lending statistics show gross advances up 31.7% year-on-year to £77.4 Billion, alongside a notable rise in high loan-to-value (90%+) and high loan-to-income lending. While arrears and possessions continued to decline, the growing share of higher-risk lending metrics warrants attention from compliance and risk teams at mortgage lenders.