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ASIC has banned a former ANZ employee for five years after finding he failed to take steps to verify home loan documentation himself.
The financial services regulator has banned Brendan John Reynolds - a former ANZ employee and former broker – from engaging in credit activities, performing any function in a business that engages in credit activities or controlling another person who engages in credit activities, for five years.
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Mr Reynolds was an employee of Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) between 2005 and August 2018, during which time he held various roles, including as a senior personal banker, home loan specialist, home and investment lending manager and two appointments as branch manager.
After ANZ brought allegations of misconduct to the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC), the regulator found that Mr Reynolds, while working as an ANZ employee, had lodged home loan applications between 2017 and 2018 without undertaking appropriate verification checks.
According to the financial services regulator, he had failed to meet with home loan applicants, accepted payslips and financial statements “from third parties instead of the applicants themselves”, and failed to take steps to verify the accuracy of those documents, in contravention of credit legislation.
ASIC alleges that despite his employment having been terminated by ANZ, Mr Reynolds then told Connective Credit Services Pty Ltd (Connective) that he had resigned from ANZ and that there were no adverse findings against him.
Between 12 September 2018 and 29 May 2019, Mr Reynolds and his company, Accelerated Mortgage Solutions Pty Ltd, were authorised credit representatives of Connective.
However, from 2019, Mr Reynolds “voluntarily removed himself from the finance and mortgage sector”.
Given the findings, ASIC has banned Mr Reynolds for five years, effective last week (23 June 2022).
Mr Reynolds has the right to seek a review of ASIC’s decision at the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
The move marks one of several actions the regulator has taken against credit representatives in recent months.
In April, ASIC banned former Finsure broker Rodney Peter Maher after he was found to be “reckless” in providing supporting home loan documents that were “false” or “materially misleading.”
However, neither of these two recent actions were as long as the 10-year banning of former financial adviser and broker Mark Babbage, who was banned after having been jailed for breaking COVID-19 rules to attend a football match.
[Related: Former mortgage broker banned for 6 years]
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