Melbourne man Anthony Wynd has been permanently banned from providing financial services by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

Mr Wynd was the sole director and responsible manager of Financial Circle from August 2017 until the firm’s financial services licence was cancelled on November 19 2018.

The company was fined nearly $9 million for breaching multiple financial services, credit and consumer protection laws.

ASIC says a permanent ban was appropriate given Mr Wynd’s connection to serious misconduct and “the likelihood that [he] would contravene a financial services law in the future.”

Financial Circle offered clients personal loans of up to $5000 if they agreed to buy insurance products and switch superannuation providers. The company then received commissions from insurers and significant advice fees that were paid directly from the clients’ super accounts.

This resulted in cases where up to 30% of clients’ superannuation balances were eroded.

In August, Mr Wynd applied to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) for a review of ASIC’s permanent ban but this was withdrawn in May and ASIC was given clearance to publish its decision this month.