The Australian Regulator earlier today filed a lawsuit against the country’s biggest comparison website in regards to the site offering a cryptocurrency product, which the corporate regulator claims to be unlicensed financial services and breaching of consumer protection laws.
Reportedly, this lawsuit is the third filed suit by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) in the past two months against crypto-related products as it thrives on checking in on the largely unregulated system.
Aussie Regulator Sues Finder
Finder runs a wallet and a website that compares products, including credit cards, home loans, bank accounts, and insurance. According to the ASIC, in a federal court filing, Finder allegedly sold a “debenture product” without a financial services license. Finder invited and urged individuals to deposit funds into an account to convert it to a “stablecoin” to get guaranteed yields.
ASIC’s court filing said people who used Finder.com’s product “made uninformed (or inadequately informed) investments, exposing them to a risk of loss, given that they did not have the benefit of the regulatory regime.”
The filed lawsuit solicited the comparison company to declare in court its intent of breaking the law that required it to hold a financial services license. And also to acknowledge investment risks, make a formal declaration about the product’s expected market, and pay unidentified fines.
ASIC Deputy Chair Sarah Court noted in a statement published with the Finder.com lawsuit, “Just because an offer involves a crypto-asset related product does not guarantee it will fall outside the current regulatory regime.”
