The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has said it will be focusing on the enforcement activities of its Wealth Management Project in the coming months.

In its enforcement report for the second half of 2016, The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) said it plans to follow on from the significant number of investigations and surveillances undertaken in the last six months by the Wealth Management Project.

ASIC's campaign is targetted at improving the standards of advice and remediation in financial services in Australia.

On page 8 of the report the regulators says «ASIC’s Wealth Management Project will continue to be a focus for our enforcement activity. The project seeks to improve the standards of major financial advice providers in terms of quality of advice and remediation. We intend to build on the significant number of investigations and surveillances we have undertaken within this project in the last six months, which have resulted in a number of key outcomes.»

Financial Malfeasance 

Additionally, ASIC said it would pay particular attention to responsible lending practices in the credit industry and financial advisers’ compliance with the best interest duty.

ASIC prosecuted several cases of financial malfeasance during 2016 with many attributed to employees of some of the countries major financial institutions.