The court dismissed the corporate regulator’s legal action, saying Finder Earn wasn’t a debt security and didn’t require a financial license.
An Australian federal court has dismissed a lawsuit bought by the country’s corporate regulator against a sister company of Australian fintech firm Finder.com, after finding its yield-bearing product Finder Earn was compliant with financial laws.
In a March 14 order, Justice Brigitte Markovic ruled that the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) “has not established that the Finder Earn product is a debenture” under the Corporations Act — a debt security where companies promise to pay back borrowed money with interest.
“As each of the contraventions of the Corporations Act alleged by ASIC is predicated on establishing that the Finder Earn product is a debenture, those contraventions cannot be made out. Thus the proceeding should be dismissed with costs,” Justice Markovic ruled.
