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A broker recently banned by ASIC was expelled from the peak industry body last year.
ASIC announced yesterday that the regulator had banned Hyuk Hwang from engaging in credit activities for three years. Mr Hwang, also known as Paul Hwang, was the director of JH Global Pty Ltd, a Sydney company trading as VIP Home Loan.
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According to ASIC, Mr Hwang “was involved in the submission of false documents to secure a loan worth $250,000”.
Mr Hwang told The Adviser he didn’t want to comment on his ban because the whole episode had been too stressful.
Mr Hwang had his MFAA membership cancelled last year, said MFAA chief executive Phil Naylor.
“Paul Hwang was a member but his membership was cancelled by MFAA when he failed to meet our educational requirements, viz Diploma of Financial Services (finance and mortgage) in March 2013,” Mr Naylor told The Adviser.
Mr Hwang is also managing director of VIP Property Group, based at 724-728 George Street, Sydney, according to the company’s website. JH Global Pty Ltd was registered at the same George Street address, according to a document lodged with ASIC.
ASIC has also just imposed a three-year ban on Anthony Bergin from Equity Financial Management. An investigation by the corporate watchdog found that he “submitted seven home loan applications worth $3.2 million to a lender that contained false or misleading information”.
Mr Bergin could not be reached for comment.
Mr Naylor said Mr Bergin had never been a member of the MFAA, adding that the association set the bar very high for people who wanted to join – and that it was prepared to take decisive action against any unethical members who managed to find their way into the association.
Fraudulent activity and dishonest conduct “almost guarantee expulsion”, Mr Naylor said.
“It’s a good way of ensuring integrity in the standards that our members uphold,” he told The Adviser. “Between ourselves and ASIC, we’re doing a good job of cleaning out the bad apples in the industry.”
One mortgage broker called on the association to conduct a national advertising campaign to stop the unethical conduct of a small minority from tarnishing everybody else’s reputation.
Priority Home Loans director Bryan Coleman said he would gladly pay a levy to help fund the campaign.
“It’s pretty clear that the reputation of the industry is tarnished once anything like this happens, because we’re an industry that, by its history, needs a lot of growing in its credibility,” Mr Coleman told The Adviser.
“Bad press travels fast; people ignore good press. So you’ve got to work five times as hard to promote the good.”
CGQ Finance Broker owner Chris Quinn said he had worked hard during his 40-year career to build a good reputation and didn’t want it tarnished by unethical professionals, adding that ASIC and the MFAA needed to weed out such people from the industry.
“I think they should be cracking down on everybody who’s dodgy. It’s no good for the industry, and no good for the consumer,” he said Mr Quinn said.
