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BPS Financial Media Statement

Date: 3 May 2024

Subject: Judgment delivered in ASIC vs BPS Financial

On Friday, 3 May 2024, Justice Downes made several rulings regarding the financial product issued by BPS Financial Pty Ltd (“BPS”) and certain representations made.

In her first ruling Justice Downes agreed with BPS that the financial product is defined as the Qoin wallet. Justice Downes rejected ASIC’s position that the financial product included the Qoin token, Qoin blockchain, Qoin wallet, means of acquiring Qoin and means of merchant registrations.

In terms of the licensing arrangements, Justice Downes ruled that BPS was compliant for the period under the PNI authorisations but not compliant for the period under the Billzy authorisations. The deficiency seems, to BPS, to have been technical issues and some errors in the documents.  To remedy this and ensure ongoing compliance, BPS is amending the Billzy agreements to align with the judgment.  This clarity gives BPS the required certainty in its licensing arrangements moving forward.

Regarding the representations, Justice Downes ruled partly in favour of BPS and partly in favour of ASIC. BPS has remedied any misrepresentations by removing those identified by Her Honour from its website. Download the Judgment (PDF)

As a 2019 start-up BPS, wanted to get their regulatory framework right, notwithstanding much confusion in the regulatory application of cryptocurrencies.  We proactively engaged with ASIC and reputable law firms from the outset.  We are obviously disappointed with the Billzy ruling; however, we now have the clarity to remedy existing licensing arrangements so that we are compliant.  This certainty will benefit our digital wallet offering as well as the Qoin project going forward.

“Our core purpose at BPS is to create advanced digital wallets and software. We are proud to support the innovative Qoin Blockchain Project (“Qoin”). Qoin was arguably Australia’s largest crypto blockchain project with circa 100,000 wallets and a team of over 300 people serving more than 30,000 businesses across Australia and New Zealand at its peak in 2021. After three years of uncertainty BPS can now accelerate to assist Qoin in their mission to be the most widely accepted digital currency creating greater economic value for business owners and their customers,” the company stated.

Media Contact: Tony Wiese   Email: [email protected]