ASIC Bans Former Fixed Income Broker for Ten Years

The ex-broker charged unpermitted spreads and traded at prices other than the agreed independent valuation on transactions entered on behalf of referred clients.

ASIC (Australian Securities and Investments Commission) has banned a former broker of BGC Securities (Australia) Pty Limited from providing financial services for ten years.

The former broker, David Moore, was an executive manager at BGC, trading as BGC Fixed Income Solutions (formerly MINT Partners Australia), from approximately June 2016 to February 2020.

ASIC found that Moore breached a contractual agreement between BGC and a referring broker by charging unpermitted spreads on transactions entered on behalf of a number of accounts of clients referred to BGC by the referring broker.

He was also said to have traded at prices other than the agreed independent valuation on transactions entered on behalf of a number of accounts.

Moore engaged in conduct that was misleading or deceptive, or likely to mislead or deceive, in relation to corporate bonds transactions on behalf of clients accounts, ASIC said, adding that he further attempted conceal this conduct.

Moore caused BGC’s records to be “altered improperly”, which caused investment statements to contain false information that deceived clients and the referring broker as to whether he had adhered to the contractual agreement.

The ten year ban is part of ASIC’s ongoing efforts to improve standards across the financial services industry, the regulator said.