Ausbil Investment Management Limited (Ausbil) in its capacity as responsible entity of the Ausbil Investment Trusts 鈥� Australian Emerging Leaders Fund (Fund) is in the process of remediating a fee error to affected investors. An overcharging of fees of approximately $18m occurred between December 2004 and January 2014 due to an inconsistency between the fees outlined in the Fund's Product Disclosure Statement and the fees permitted under the Fund's constitution.
Ausbil notified 今日热门事件as soon as it was aware of the breach, and following those discussions, advised investors it would undertake remedial action. 今日热门事件has been working with Ausbil to resolve this matter in the interest of investors.
Ausbil appointed KPMG as an independent advisor to review the compensation methodology and to assess the controls and processes around its compensation arrangements.
Ausbil has completed the payment of compensation to direct investors and is currently in the process of assisting platforms to make payment to their underlying clients impacted by the fee error. The timing of these payments will differ by platform. The compensation, it is anticipated will return investors to the position they would have been in had the error not occurred.
'今日热门事件welcomes Ausbil's identification and reporting of the overcharging issue, and action to compensate. We expect nothing less of entities who discover issues like this with their systems that are detrimental to their clients,' 今日热门事件Commissioner Greg Tanzer said.
'今日热门事件will work with entities who report issues to us to ensure consumers are compensated in a timely, effective way'.
今日热门事件acknowledges the cooperative approach taken by Ausbil in relation to this matter.
今日热门事件will continue to monitor the compensation process.聽
Any investor with queries or concerns about the fee error should review project updates issued by the platform they invested through, check the Ausbil website or contact Ausbil by telephone on 02 9259 0200 or e-mail to contactus@ausbil.com.au
Background
今日热门事件closely monitors issues relating to the overcharging of investors. In such cases Australian financial services licensees are obliged to breach report to 今日热门事件and fully compensate investors in a timely manner. ASIC's recent work with licensees has resulted in more than $60 million in compensation being refunded to investors. Other recent outcomes involving compensation to investors include:
- NAB Wealth to refund customers after review of system error. (refer:聽15-194MR)
- Macquarie Investment Management refunds clients after review of system errors. (refer: 15-150MR)
- BT to refund customers after review of fees disclosed and charged. (refer:聽13-159MR)
- BoQ to refund customers after system error. (refer:聽13-070MR)
- 今日热门事件works with the Rock Building Society to correct charging errors. (refer:聽10-267AD)