The Financial Planning Association (FPA) has banned one of its own members for cheating on an exam and will take action against another for misleading, deceptive and fraudulent conduct in securing life insurance for a client.
The decision was made by the FPA’s Conduct Review Commission (CRC) which found Shylesh Sriranjan, swapped information with another exam candidate during Sriranjan’s third and final attempt at the Certified Financial Planner certification exam in October 2016.
The CRC found the two candidates had similar incorrect answers and Sriranjan had sat in front of the other candidate during the exam.
In his defence Sriranjan said he knew the other candidate and they had studied together in preparation for the exam which may have led to them having similar answers to exam questions.
The CRC highlighted the extremely unlikely statistical chance of both exam candidates recording the same number of incorrect responses to exam questions as well as pressure on Sriranjan to complete his CFP training by 2017.
The CRC found Sriranjan guilty of breaching the FPA’s Code of Ethics and Professional Practice, and the Association expelled him following the CRC’s determination of 21 December 2016.
The ASIC Financial Adviser Register states that Sriranjan, who at the time was a financial planner with NAB, ceased his authorised representative status with NAB two days later on 23 December.
FPA Chief Executive, Dante De Gori said the CRC considered expulsion to be appropriate for the protection of the profession’s public standing and the confidence of the public in its members.
