Bocafx agreed to remove misleading statement for ASIC authorisation
Following ASIC concerns, Boca Global Financial Group Pty Ltd ACN 602 109 035 (Boca) has agreed to remove statements on its website suggesting Boca is ASIC regulated or authorised to provide financial services in Australia. ASIC became aware of such potentially misleading or deceptive website representations on the following website: https://www.bocafx.com.au/
Boca is neither currently authorised to provide financial services in Australia under an Australian financial services licence nor is it exempted from holding a licence.
Boca was previously appointed as a corporate authorised representative of Finsa Pty Limited (Finsa) on 23 January 2015. This appointment ceased on 29 September 2015. Even at the time Boca was a corporate authorised representative of Finsa, it would not have been able to lawfully provide some of the financial services in Australia advertised on its website. As an authorised representative Boca can only be authorised to provide a specified financial service ‘on behalf of’ a licensee, and not on its own behalf.
ASIC Commissioner Cathie Armour said, ‘This is another example of an entity in the retail margin FX industry misrepresenting it is regulated by ASIC.’
‘Industry participants need to be clear on the limitations of using a corporate authorised representative business model. Authorised representatives that purport to issue financial products on their own behalf will expose themselves to regulatory action for unlicensed conduct.’
‘Authorised representatives that falsely market themselves as a product issuer will face regulatory action for misleading and deceptive conduct. Licensees that allow their authorised representatives to act this way may also risk regulatory action for failing to adequately supervise their representatives.’
Source: ASIC
