For causing the collapse of the companies they were managing, six corporate directors were banned by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) from managing corporations for more than 20 years.

In a statement, ASIC said in the first quarter of this year, the corporate watchdog has ordered the disqualification of six directors from managing future corporations because their poor performance led to the collapse of their companies.

Those banned from managing were from Victoria (three), Queensland (two) and Western Australia (one).

The disqualifications are a result of ASIC's ongoing commitment to removing directors from managing companies after they have failed to fulfill their responsibilities relating to the proper running of the company, or after the company had been placed in external administration.

The actions taken by ASIC serve to protect future creditors, investors and employees who may otherwise be involved with a director who has a history of being involved in failed companies.

Three of the disqualifications resulted from the receipt of supplementary reports after further investigations were conducted by liquidators who had received funding through the Assetless Administration Fund (AA Fund).

The AA Fund was established to assist liquidators to carry out more detailed investigations into the circumstances of a company failure and to report, where appropriate, director misconduct to ASIC.

All the directors who were banned were afforded the opportunity to lodge an application with the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for a review of ASIC's decision.