ASX Query Letters re ISX suspension & termination by Visa
Melbourne, Oct 26, 2020 AEST (ABN Newswire) - ASX Ltd's (
ASX:ASX) release today of selective extracts from outdated correspondence between an iSignthis Ltd's (ASX:ISX) EU subsidiary and Visa Europe Ltd is a disgraceful abuse of its privileged position as a licensed market operator. It is a blatant and undisguised effort to enhance its commercial position and attempt to sway opinion regarding the current Federal Court litigation brought by iSignthis.
iSignthis Ltd announced the termination of an agreement with Visa several months ago on 25 May 2020, and by doing so met its disclosure requirements. As clearly demonstrated by improving cashflow and revenues, the agreement, which had also not commenced delivery of services into Australia, was not material to iSignthis.
The documents (dated between March and May 2020) from which the extracts were sourced have been in ASX Ltd's possession since at least July 2020, yet the selective extracts have only been released after the passage of several months.
The extracts are irresponsible and is misleading to the market, because the documents held by ASX Ltd represent just 7 out of more than 200 confidential documents created in the course of a commercial dispute.
Their release constitutes a breach by the ASX Ltd of EU financial conduct laws, despite requests from Visa and iSignthis that these not be released. In not respecting the sovereign laws of the EU ASX Ltd have again demonstrated the lengths the ASX Ltd will go to try and discredit a commercial rival that has taken legal action against them.
The ASX Ltd approach to partially release of selective extracts is further evidence of misleading and deceptive conduct under s1041H of the Corporations Act by the ASX Ltd.
ASX Ltd has not released other more relevant information, including the fact that Visa is now the subject of a number of regulatory investigations in Europe and possibly Australia, related to the subject matter of the correspondence and its release.
Neither iSignthis nor its subsidiaries are under investigation for any operational matters, or for those matters raised by Visa. AUSTRAC has also confirmed that it has not engaged with any business or financial institution with regards to iSignthis' business operations.
ASX Ltd has issued iSignthis with 3 query letters on its dispute with Visa, each of which has been answered. While ASX Ltd has today released its query letters, in a departure from usual practice, ASX Ltd has not released iSignthis' replies to Visa, thus ensuring that there is not a fully informed market.
Most concerning to iSignthis was ASX Ltd's recent demands that it waive legal professional privilege and hand to ASX Ltd legal advice received in relation to the Visa dispute. ASX Ltd does not have the right to make such demands, despite it claiming it does so under listing rules.
John Karantzis, Managing Director of iSignthis said "It would appear that ASX Ltd is trying to create a public controversy where one did not exist. There have been a number of serious governance failures of high profile ASX listed companies lately with the ASX Ltd having been silent on each of these. iSignthis clearly draws disproportional attention and criticism from the ASX Ltd, whose requirements of iSignthis continue to be inconsistent with those of every other listed entity on the exchange.
There is not a single auditor, independent expert, or regulator in any jurisdiction that has issued any serious or material adverse report or notice against iSignthis or its subsidiaries. The ASX Ltd alone stands out in its continuous and unjustified attacks on the Company, as it seeks to further its commercial interests by abuse of the listing rules and its position as a licensed market operator."
About iSignthis Ltd
iSignthis Ltd (ASX:ISX) (FRA:TA8) is a hybrid monetary financial institution and also a RegTech leader in remote identity verification, payment authentication with deposit taking, transactional banking and payment processing capability. iSignthis provides an end-to-end on-boarding service for merchants, with a unified payment, electronic money and identity service via our Paydentity(TM) and ISXPay(R) solutions.
By converging payments and identity, iSignthis delivers regulatory compliance to an enhanced customer due diligence standard, offering global reach to any of the world's 4.2Bn 'bank verified' card or account holders, that can be remotely on-boarded to meet the Customer Due Diligence requirements of AML regulated merchants in as little as 3 to 5 minutes. Paydentity(TM) has now onboarded and verified more than 1.5m persons to an AML KYC standard.
iSignthis Paydentity(TM) service is the trusted back office solution for regulated entities, allowing merchants to stay ahead of the regulatory curve, and focus on growing their core business. iSignthis' subsidiary, iSignthis eMoney Ltd, trades as ISXPay(R), and is an EEA authorised eMoney Monetary Financial Institution, offering card acquiring in the EEA, and Australia.
ISXPay(R) is a principal member of Mastercard Inc, Diners, Discover, (China) Union Pay International and JCB International, an American Express aggregator, and provides merchants with access to payments via alternative methods including SEPA, Poli Payments, Sofort, PRZ24 and others.
Probanx Solutions Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of iSignthis Ltd, provides API based access to CORE Banking solutions, SEPA Core, SEPA Instant and SEPA business scheme, for neobanks, banks, credit unions and emoney institutions, and provides a bridge to the Eurosystem's Central Bank of Lithuania's CENTROLink service.
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