An adviser who falsified his financial exam result and went on to provide advice has been permanently banned from the industry.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) says Todd Karamian altered his Financial Adviser Certificate to a “pass” grade after failing the test.

He then gave the altered certificate to his licensee, Bluepoint Consulting Pty Ltd, which subsequently provided it to ASIC.

The website of Bluepoint Consulting, an investment consulting and wealth management firm based in Sydney, lists Mr Karamian as CEO and on his LinkedIn he says he is a co-founder of the firm.

ASIC says in December 2021 it found he altered the results and provided personal advice from that month until September 9 the following year to 11 retail clients when he was not authorised to do so as he had failed the exam.

“The ban prevents Mr Karamian from providing any financial service, controlling an entity that carries on a financial services business and performing any function involved in carrying on a financial services business,” ASIC said.

He has the right to appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for a review of ASIC’s decision.

Since January 2019 professional standards have applied to financial advisers, including the requirement to pass the Financial Advisers Exam.

Financial advisers were required to pass the exam before January 1 last year to be able to continue to provide personal advice to retail clients on relevant financial products.

Those who sat and failed the exam at least twice before the January deadline were granted an extension to October 1 2022 to pass the test and were permitted to continue providing personal advice until September 30 that year.