The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has banned a former AMP Financial Planning representative from providing financial services for eight years, mainly for forging documents.

James Edward McCarthy, a financial advisor from South Australia, is the sole director of McCarthy Financial Solutions Pty Ltd and was an authorised representative of AMP Financial Planning Pty Ltd between December 2011 and April 2015.

ASIC found that Mr McCarthy created and backdated Statements of Advice and Authority to Proceed documents and forged client signatures for the purpose of complying with an internal AMP Financial Planning audit in March 2015.

McCarthy did not hand any of the false documents to clients. ASIC began to investigate him at the instigation of AMP. It says that this action is a result of its Wealth Management Project, which it established in October 2014 with the objective of lifting standards among major financial advice providers. The project focuses on the conduct of the largest financial advice firms (NAB, Westpac, CBA, ANZ, Macquarie and AMP).

As part of its Wealth Management Project, ASIC has banned 24 other advisors from the financial services industry.