ASIC Filed Six Civil Penalty Proceedings Against Westpac

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), Australia's financial regulatory authority, announced it has commenced six civil penalty proceedings against Westpac in the Federal Court, alleging widespread compliance failures across multiple Westpac businesses.

According to the announcement, the six matters filed against Westpac concern debt sales, deceased estates, general insurance, contribution fees, deregistered companies and insurance in super.

"A common aspect across these matters has been poor systems, poor processes and poor governance, which is suggestive of an overall poor compliance culture within Westpac at the relevant time. Customers are entitled to have trust and confidence in Westpac being able to deliver what it promises, without suffering financial harm. Westpac must urgently improve its systems and culture to ensure these systemic failures do not continue,"ASIC Deputy Chair Sarah Court said.

Westpac has admitted the allegations in each of the proceedings and will remediate approximately $80 million to customers. ASIC and Westpac will submit to the court that combined penalties of more than $100 million are appropriate.

"As flagged, we have been working to resolve a number of outstanding regulatory matters before the Bank. We have cooperated with ASIC through the investigations and the process to get to this resolution today,"Westpac CEO, Peter King, said.

Last week, ASIC has disqualified David Michael Scofield​, of Applecross WA from managing companies for five years due to his involvement in the failure of four companies.