Australian watchdog revokes licence of Golden Financial Group

ASIC has cancelled the Australian financial services (AFS) licence of Melbourne based financial services provider Golden Financial Group.
The company had failed to lodge its annual financial reports and did not have membership of an external dispute resolution system.
ASIC said in response to its enquiries, Golden Financial advised the regulator it had ceased the business and requested its AFSL cancellation.
Golden Financial has held AFS licence since April 3, 2008. The licensee was previously trading as NSG Services Pty Ltd and National Sterling Financial Services Pty Ltd.
Back in October 2017 ASIC announced the Federal Court had imposed a civil penalty of $1 million against NSG Services Pty Ltd (NSG) for breaches of the best interests duty introduced under the Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) reforms.
This marked the first civil penalty imposed on a financial services licensee for breaches of the best interests duty.
The firm's clients were reported to be commonly sold insurance and advised to roll over superannuation accounts that committed them to costly, unsuitable and unnecessary financial arrangements.
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