ASIC Suspends Licenses of JB Markets, First City amid Compliance Failures

<p> The Australian
financial markets regulator ASIC announced today (Thursday) it decided to
suspend the license of two entities operating in the local financial market, JB
Markets and First City Corporate Advisory Services (First City). According to
official statements, both the reasons and the duration of the suspension vary
by company.</p><p>ASIC Suspends Two AFS
Licenses</p><p>Both JB
Markets and First City hold the <a href="https://www.financemagnates.com/tag/asic/" target="_blank" rel="follow">Australian Financial Services (AFS) license</a>,
which allows the provision of financial and investment services. JB Markets
offers brokerage and dealing services in futures markets, while First City
provides corporate advisory, assisting with the purchase or sale of businesses
and capital raising.</p><p>JB Markets'
license has been suspended until April 30, 2024, due to failure to "comply
with the financial requirements of its AFS license" and "have
adequate resources to provide the financial services covered by the
license."</p><p>For the
second entity, the suspension lasts until March 27, 2024, and is due to failure
to "lodge annual financial statements and audit reports." <a href="https://www.financemagnates.com/terms/a/asic/">ASIC</a> also
emphasizes that if the company does not fulfill its qualification obligations
by the end of this period, ASIC will consider canceling the license.</p><p>JB Markets
has been using the AFS authorization since July 2008, whereas First City only
obtained it this year, on April 15.</p><p>ASIC
Publishes First Warning List</p><p>The
suspension of the AFS licenses of two entities came a few days after ASIC, for the first time in history, <a href="https://www.financemagnates.com/forex/asic-publishes-its-first-investor-alert-list-adds-77-names/" target="_blank" rel="follow">published its own</a> "Investor Alert List,"
following a practice common among other regulators. Initially, 77 names
appeared on the list.</p><p>A few weeks
earlier, the market watchdog revealed its actions against <a href="https://www.financemagnates.com/forex/asics-anti-scam-drive-over-2500-investment-fraud-phishing-websites-face-action/" target="_blank" rel="follow">more than 2,500
investment scams</a> and <a href="https://www.financemagnates.com/terms/p/phishing/">phishing</a> sites. It implemented a feature to remove
fraudulent websites, through which it has already removed 2,100 sites and
placed another 400 sites in the removal process since July 2023.</p><p>The
measures to combat investment fraud were taken after Australians
reported <a href="https://www.financemagnates.com/forex/aussies-report-a-record-au15b-investment-scam-losses-in-2022/" target="_blank" rel="follow">a record loss of AUD3.1 billion</a> in 2022 due to scams, of which AUD1.5
billion were lost due to investment fraud.</p>

This article was written by Damian Chmiel at www.financemagnates.com.