WealthHub Securities, the NAB-owned online broker behind nabtrade and JBWere, has been fined $1.055 million by ASIC's Markets Disciplinary Panel (MDP) over regulatory reporting failures stretching from July 2014 to October 2024.
An ASIC investigation found WealthHub failed to provide complete and accurate regulatory data more than 9.5 million times over the decade-long period, and lacked the organisational and technical resources needed to meet its reporting obligations under the ASIC Market Integrity Rules.
The MDP found WealthHub repeatedly failed to report, or incorrectly reported, the Intermediary ID — the AFS licence number identifying which entity is responsible for orders and trades placed through a market participant's system — in orders and trade reports submitted to market operators including the ASX. This field helps ASIC identify trading patterns, calculate industry funding levies, and detect misconduct such as insider trading and market manipulation, meaning incorrect or missing data can undermine ASIC's broader surveillance capability.
ASIC had flagged these obligations industry-wide as far back as September 2021, when it reminded market participants of their "obligations to provide accurate and complete regulatory data" in a Market Integrity Update.
The MDP found WealthHub missed multiple opportunities to fix the underlying cause of its errors, failed to take adequate corrective action, and did not lodge a reportable situation report to ASIC until January 2023.
WealthHub has paid the infringement notice, though doing so is not an admission of guilt or liability under the Corporations Act. It's the latest in a string of significant penalties as ASIC lifts its enforcement activity — Deputy Chair Sarah Court has said the regulator's enforcement work will continue to target systemic compliance failures and corporate culture weaknesses, not just technical breaches, with investigations roughly doubling and new court proceedings nearly doubling over the past 12 months.
For brokers and licensees more broadly, the case is a reminder that delays in identifying or escalating compliance issues can compound regulatory exposure over time.
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