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Australia’s Westpac likely to pay $81 million for allegedly charging dead people, among other breaches


Australia’s No 3 lender has admitted six civil penalty proceedings filed by the country’s securities regulator, including charges against banks, pension funds, asset management and current divested insurance units in general.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has accused Westpac charges more A$10 million ($7.2 million) in consultation fees for more than 11,000 deceased and distribution of duplicate policies to more than 7,000 clients.

ASIC claims these breaches took place over a 10-year period.

Australia’s financial industry has faced intense scrutiny since a Royal Commission investigation in 2018 uncovered widespread deficiencies across the industry, with charging the dead as a of the most common and damaging revelations.

“The issues raised in these should not be happening and our processes, systems and monitoring should be better,” Westpac CEO Peter King said in a statement.

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ASIC and Westpac will jointly propose a penalty of AU$113 million in federal court, and the lender will return about AU$80 million ($57 million) to customers, ASIC said.

“The conduct and alleged violations in these proceedings caused widespread consumer harm and stretched across the everyday banking, financial advice, superannuation and insurance businesses. of Westpac,” said ASIC Vice President Sarah Court.

“Westpac must urgently improve its system and culture to ensure these systemic failures do not continue.”

She added that “it is unprecedented for ASIC to file multiple proceedings against the same defendant at the same time.”

Last week, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand said Westpac’s local unit needed to address compliance and risk management concerns after an independent report highlighted “significant omissions” in its oversight process. supervision of the board of directors.

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