At Australian Broker, we love a bit of healthy discussion, which is why we honour our favourite comment each week with a lofty little title. Drum roll please...
ASIC this week cancelled the license of a Melbourne broker for failing to adequately verify documents, but the banning raised further questions for brokers - just how far do brokers need to go to verify information is correct? And are there sufficient resources available to them to do this?
Reader oldBroker highlights the importance of the issue, while calling on industry bodies to play their part:
"This is a very important issue, because good brokers who are only doing their job could be caught up in this. The question is: what constitutes reasonable investigation on the part of the broker's due-diligence?
I would hope that the MFAA (if this broker is a member) would investigate this to determine whether the broker is indeed negligent or did adequate due-diligence but was stymied by inadequate tools, access to correct data, etc. If it is shown that the broker tried to do the investigation, then the MFAA should lobby on his behalf.
Regardless of this particular's broker guilt or innocence however, the MFAA should be lobbying to remove this ambiguity from the NCCP regulations. This is very important."
Thanks to everyone who contributed comments over the last seven days and keep an eye out next Friday to see if you're the author of Australian Broker's next top 'Comment of the Week'!
