SYDNEY : Australia's corporate regulator sued the country's biggest comparison website on Thursday in relation to a cryptocurrency product, accusing it of conducting unlicensed financial services and breaching consumer protection laws.
Finder Wallet, a unit of price comparison website Finder.com, effectively sold a debenture product without a financial services licence by inviting people to deposit money in an account, converting it to a"stablecoin" and paying guaranteed returns, ASIC said in a federal court filing. ASIC Chairman Joe Longo said in parliament this month that the regulator wants to test in court whether crypto assets count as financial products under the law.
ASIC's court filing said people who used Finder.com's product"made uninformed investments, exposing them to a risk of loss ... given that they did not have the benefit of the regulatory regime".