Westpac Securities Administration Ltd & Anor v. Australian Securities and Investments Commission

Lower Court Judgment

28/10/2019; 12/11/2019 Federal Court of Australia (Allsop Cj, Jagot and O’Bryan JJ)

[2019] FCAFC 187

Catchwords

Corporations–Financial product advice –Corporations Act 2001(Cth) s 766B(3)(b) –Distinction between personal advice and general advice –Where bank customers received letters or emails highlighting benefits of consolidating superannuation and offering to conduct free search to identify superannuation accounts that customers may have held with other providers –Where representative of bank then called customers, providing them with any relevant search results and offering to roll over superannuation accounts into their account with bank –Where Full Court of Federal Court held that bank provided financial product advice (within meaning of s 766B(1) of Corporations Act) to customers –Whether that financial product advice was personal advice –Whether objective limb of definition of “personal advice” in s 766B(3)(b) depends on whether reasonable person might expect that advice provider had in fact considered recipient’s personal circumstances or that advice provider should have considered those circumstances –Whether consideration of recipient’s personal circumstances (within meaning of s 766B(3)(b)) requires advice provider to engage with and evaluate those circumstances in formulating advice –Extent to which a recipient’s “objectives, financial situation and needs” must be considered by advice provider for advice to be personal advice.

Short particulars