Financial planners still targeted over Trio Capital
Federal officials are continuing to apportion blame for some of the Trio Capital losses to financial planners who directed clients towards the company on the basis of larger than normal commission.
However, at the same time as pointing to the activities of some planners, the officials revealed that the whistleblower who alerted authorities to the irregularities which gave rise to the collapse of Trio Capital was a former Treasury officer who took his concerns to Treasury officers, who then notified the regulators which ultimately acted.
A senior Treasury official yesterday confirmed to a Senate Estimates committee it was the department rather than the regulatory agencies which had been the source of the first action resulting from the whistleblower's report.
A Senate Estimates committee hearing was yesterday told that Bronte Capital Management chief executive John Hempton was a former Treasury officer who had notified his old department when he detected the Trio irregularities.
Treasury markets group executive director Jim Murphy told the Senate Committee that Hempton had contacted Treasury which had then passed through information to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), which then acted.
Murphy noted, however, that both regulators had been watching Trio Capital, albeit they had not acted against it at that time.
Under questioning from members of the Estimates Committee, including the Opposition spokesman on Financial Services Senator Mathias Cormann, the Treasury officials acknowledged that there appeared to have been a failure with respect to ASIC, APRA and the Australian Taxation Office exchanging information and intelligence which might have prompted them to act sooner on Trio.
However, the Treasury officials said regulatory protocols had existed which should have facilitated the exchange of the relevant information between the agencies.
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