The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has imposed additional licence conditions on the Australian financial services (AFS) licence of Learn To Trade Pty Ltd (LTT) after the company failed to comply with financial services laws.

LTT provides coaching and training services online to retail and wholesale clients in relation to trading on margin Forex contracts or contracts for difference (CFDs).

ASIC was concerned that LTT failed to comply with a number of its obligations as an AFS licensee requiring certain financial documents and notifications to be lodged with ASIC under financial services law and AFS licence conditions.

In particular, for the financial years ending 31 December 2023 and 31 December 2024, LTT failed to lodge its annual financial statement and audit report within the prescribed timeframe and in compliance with its AFS licence conditions.

Further, LTT has been late in lodging the required annual financial statements and audit reports on multiple occasions since 2012, causing ASIC to conclude that, in the future, LTT was likely to continue contravening its obligations under financial services laws.

LTT also failed to notify ASIC of the appointment of a new auditor.

Compliance with the financial reporting and notification obligations is important to allow ASIC to monitor the AFS licensee’s financial health on a timely basis and ensure the licensee is solvent and can demonstrate they continue to meet the ongoing financial requirements stipulated in their licence conditions. The auditor notification updates the AFS licensee register for the appointed auditor, allowing both internal and external stakeholders to know who is responsible for the licensee’s audit.

ASIC has taken the significant step of imposing an additional condition on the AFS licence of LTT requiring it to appoint an independent compliance consultant to review and assess LTT’s procedures for ensuring that it lodges an auditor’s report and financial statements as required under its licence conditions within the prescribed timeframe.

The consultant is also to consider LTT’s procedures and frameworks for monitoring its compliance with the financial services laws, for identifying and reporting breaches and other relevant policies and procedures.

The consultant must provide two reports on these matters to ASIC so ASIC can assess whether LTT is likely to comply with its obligations in the future or whether further action may be warranted.

On 15 January 2010, LTT was granted AFS licence no. 339557. The licence permitted LTT to provide financial product advice about derivatives, FX contracts and securities to retail and wholesale clients.