‘There’s funds on these platforms that shouldn’t be there’: ASIC targets managed accounts in private credit crackdown
ASIC has set its sights on how individual investors are accessing the booming private credit asset class via managed account platforms.
The corporate regulator is scrutinising managed discretionary account (MDA) and separately managed account (SMA) providers as part of its latest wave of surveillance of the private credit sector.
Multiple industry sources told Capital Brief the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) in recent weeks has sent out information queries to several managed account providers, focusing on potential conflicted remuneration, whether groups were earning fees at multiple points during a transaction and whether true service costs were being disclosed.
The use of managed accounts by wealth managers and financial advisers has boomed over the past 10 years with Zenith Partners estimating assets under management could exceed $400 billion by 2030.
MDAs and SMAs are multi-asset investment portfolios managed by professional investors. It allows individual investors to access a range of funds but the underlying assets are owned directly rather than pooled with others, which can also have tax benefits.
