An advisor whose conduct fell well short of expected standards has been told not to practice in the sector for three years.

Australia’s financial regulator has banned an advisor from the industry for three years because he did not have the judgement or skills required. The ban has been imposed on Sean Nofal, who  was employed by State One Stockbroking Limited between 2006 and 2015 and was appointed a responsible executive in 2010.
  
On two occasions Nofal's conduct fell far short of the standard that would reasonably be expected of a competent financial services provider, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission said in a statement yesterday. 

ASIC also found that Nofal did not have sufficient judgment or skill to meet the demands of a position with the duties and responsibilities of a responsible executive, or the level of competence required for roles in the financial services industry. 

“His conduct had the potential to contravene the financial services laws and accordingly, ASIC had reason to believe that Mr Nofal was likely to contravene a financial services law in the future,” the watchdog said.

The agency also found that Nofal was aware that between early 2011 and January 2012 and in July 2013, two clients of State One were conducting trading that was suspicious.

“During this time, he [Nofal] had detailed telephone conversations with the clients about their trading, alerted them to enquiries made by ASIC in relation to their trading and advised them what to say if questioned by ASIC, in an apparent attempt to avoid further scrutiny. Mr Nofal failed to take appropriate action in response to these matter and specifically, he did not report his conversations with the clients to his compliance colleagues, or anyone else, at the time. ASIC did not accept that Mr Nofal did not have a specific compliance role or that it was not his responsibility to consider or report these matters,” it said.
ASIC said it did not consider Nofal's conduct to be dishonest or deliberate but had shown “extremely poor judgment”.

ASIC has conducted a campaign to rid the wealth management sector of advisors and other professionals for offences and lack of sufficient expertise and behaviour. For a recent story, see here.