Australian Securities & Investments Commission panel fines WealthHub AUD 1.055 million over 9.5 million reporting failures

The Australian Securities & Investments Commission said its Markets Disciplinary Panel fined WealthHub Securities Limited AUD 1.055 million after finding that the online broker failed more than 9.5 million times over a 10-year period to submit complete and accurate regulatory data. Following an ASIC investigation, the panel found that from 28 July 2014 to 31 October 2024 WealthHub also failed to maintain the organisational and technical resources needed to meet its reporting obligations under the ASIC Market Integrity Rules. The failures centred on Intermediary ID data in orders and trade reports submitted to market operators, including ASX. WealthHub repeatedly omitted the Intermediary ID and in some cases reported the wrong one, undermining ASIC’s ability to identify trading patterns, supervise markets and detect misconduct such as insider trading and market manipulation. The panel found that WealthHub lacked adequate systems, expertise, oversight and resourcing to ensure correct reporting, did not identify and remediate breaches in a timely and effective way, missed multiple opportunities to address the root cause and did not lodge a reportable situation report with ASIC until January 2023. WealthHub, a wholly owned subsidiary of National Australia Bank, has complied with the infringement notice and paid the fine. ASIC noted that compliance with the notice is not an admission of guilt or liability and does not mean WealthHub is taken to have contravened subsection 798H(1) of the Corporations Act 2001.