PwC exec Peter Collins banned for eight years

The corporate regulator has banned former PwC Australia head of international tax Peter Collins from working in the financial services industry for eight years.

Peter Collins was also banned by the Tax Practitioners Board in the wake of revelations. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Nikki Short

The corporate regulator is still working through almost 160 names associated with the tax leaks around PwC Australia after revealing it had banned a key figure in the scandal from operating a financial services business for eight years.

Appearing before a Senate committee on Friday, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission said Peter Collins, PwC’s former head of international tax, had not sought to contest an order finding he was not a fit and proper person.

ASIC said it had made orders banning Mr Collins from running a financial services business for more than eight years after conducting its own investigation into the PwC tax leaks scandal.

The regulator said it had found Mr Collins had disclosed confidential information he obtained while consulting with the government over new tax laws set to be introduced in 2016.

Mr Collins has already faced censure over his leaking of confidential government information after he was banned by the Tax Practitioners Board from acting as a tax agent.

ASIC said it was taking action against Mr Collins over his role as an authorised representative of PricewaterhouseCoopers Securities.

Mr Collins held a role with PwC between March 2004 and July 2006 and again from December 2013 to October 2022, when he left the big four firm.

ASIC deputy chair Sarah Court said the regulator had assessed Mr Collins’ alleged conduct and had formed the view he was not a fit and proper person to provide financial services, control an entity that provides financial services, or perform any function in a business that conducts financial services.

Ms Court said Mr Collins had been given the right to contest ASIC’s ban or apply for a suppression order but had not done so by midday on Friday.

However, the former head of international tax at PwC can still contest his banning at the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

The banning comes after the TPB did not find Mr Collins was not a fit and proper person when it made orders against him last year.

Ms Court said ASIC was liaising with the TPB over investigations into other consulting firms and partners at PwC but noted there were no additional banning decisions pending “in the near future”.

“There are some 160 authorised representatives sitting beneath the financial services licence that is held by PwC securities, we are working through that list of names to ascertain whether or not any of those persons were involved with the conduct,” she said.

“We are hampered.. To some degree that we are only able to use our statutory compulsory powers to the extent there is a contravention of our legislation.”

“The conduct that Mr Collins has been accused of was not a contravention of those acts, it was an issue about the leaking of confidential information.”

Labor Senator Deb O’Neill said Mr Collins had been found to be not a fit and proper person.

“His eight year banning is a condemnation of his gross misuse of confidential government information, and of the unethical behaviour which PwC not only tolerated, but seemed to cultivate and actively profit from under former CEOs Luke Sayers and Tom Seymour,“ she said.

ASIC told the Senate committee it was largely hamstrung in dealing with the PwC tax scandal, noting it only had oversight of parts of the audit and consulting giant’s business.

PwC has investigated the tax leaks through a number of probes, including law firms King and Wood Mallesons, Allens, and Linklaters in addition to a review by corporate veteran Ziggy Switkowski.

Mr Switkowski’s report, published last month by PwC, found the firm had a dysfunctional culture which allowed the confidentiality leaks to go unchecked.

ASIC regulation and supervision executive director Greg Yanco said he had read the report and found PwC had set quite a limited scope for investigations.

“It’s quite troubling,” he said.

Mr Yanco said ASIC’s planned review of audit in the professional services giants next year would look at some of the issues raised in the Switkowski review, including conflicts of interest and quality management.