Bank busted for ownership non-disclosure

The investigation found 150,000 customers received deficient disclosure on advice documents relating to MLC-branded financial products and those of NAB’s boutique fund stable.

The ASIC statement said that the defective disclosures were the result of “process error”.

Affected customers will now receive a “corrective disclosure” when they log into the MLC website for a three-month period.

“NAB has also agreed to write to the remainder of affected customers currently invested in related products, explicitly acknowledging the issue and providing corrective disclosure,” said a statement from ASIC.

Failure to disclose relevant relationships is a breach of the Corporations Act.

The investigation was part of ASIC’s wealth management project, looking into vertical integration in the six largest financial advice networks.