Australia’s financial regulator, the Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), raised concerns about the performance of local Australian subsidiary FTX eight months before the exchange went bust in November, Cointelegraph writes.

Concerns arose after FTX Australia was able to obtain a license in the country following its takeover of financial services company IFS Markets in December 2021, before opening for business a few months later in March.

According to ASIC chief executive Joe Longo, this allowed FTX Australia to effectively bypass the level of scrutiny that normally applies to new AFSL licensees.

The regulator sent FTX a notice the same month the exchange started operations, requiring it to submit information about its operations to ASIC to assess whether it was compliant with the terms of its AFSL license.

Specifically, the firm was required to provide documents showing what financial services it provided to determine whether the licensee met the suitability test.

A few months before FTX collapsed on Nov. 11, the regulator placed the exchange under “surveillance” and sent it a total of 3 notices. In doing so, it was still concerned about FTX’s operations.

The financial license of FTX’s Australian subsidiary was suspended on November 16 and it went into voluntary administration, similar to bankruptcy in the US.

It is estimated that around 30,000 Australian customers and 132 companies are demanding their money or cryptocurrencies from the exchange.