Steadfast in trading halt as ABC claims group misled clients

The news: Steadfast Group has entered a trading halt on the ASX following an ABC article which stated that Australia's largest strata insurance broker has been "caught misleading its clients".

The numbers: Steadfast shares were down 6.1% to $5.96 after the article was published this morning, prior to the trading halt.

The context: The ABC article, which followed a Four Corners investigation into the company, said that Steadfast had been caught "burying an offer of cheaper insurance from a rival company, and instead recommending a more expensive policy from its own wholly owned firm".

The investigation also found the company to be part of "opaque schemes to channel insurance kickbacks to strata management firms — without disclosing the schemes to the apartment owners from whom the money ultimately comes".