FPA working on 'name and shame' register

Consumers as well as Financial Planning Association (FPA) members will soon be able to access a ‘name and shame’ register of banned members.

The FPA is currently working on its website to introduce the new facility, which is expected to be up and running some time this year.

Deputy chief executive Deen Sanders said that while banned members’ names are currently published in the FPA’s Financial Planning magazine that goes out to members, the online capability would be available to both members and consumers.

Sanders said one of the reasons why the FPA is keen to develop this facility is due to the difficulties encountered when navigating the Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s (ASIC’s) banned and disqualified adviser registers. He said the authorised representatives register, for example, is often not current and does not identify those working under an authorised representative who might have engaged in misconduct. He added that the pool of those who have been prosecuted is also small because ASIC’s investigation and prosecution processes are long and often not always successful.

While the FPA’s anticipated banned member register will help address these issues, Sanders said the FPA is mindful that its capacity to formally name and shame an individual and fulfil the obligations it has to the public interest must be balanced with the obligation it has to natural justice principles, which involves a formal investigation process and other requirements.

“The only power that we have as a professional association to name is at the end of a Conduct Review Commission investigation,” he said. “It’s only natural that members, the industry and the consumer community want to be able to see these things published, and that’s entirely appropriate, but again we have an obligation to natural justice and other obligations that we have to attend to in that context.”

Sanders said while the register would tie in with FPA Confidential, the association’s recently launched anonymous reporting facility, culprits of wrongdoing could only be publically identified following the Conduct Review Commission process.

Sanders added that complaints or information supplied to FPA Confidential about non-members would also be accepted, although its ability to investigate is limited.

“But what we will probably do with the alternative data is build up a bank of evidence and material that might better explain for us what issues are happening in the marketplace,” Sanders said. He added that allegations of unlawful behaviour would be handed over to the relevant authorities.