Westpac Ordered to Pay $113 Million After Six ASIC Legal Actions
The Federal Court has ordered Westpac to pay penalties in the amount of $113 million for widespread compliance failures across multiple businesses, including Westpac's banking, superannuation, wealth management and insurance brands.
Last year, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has commenced six civil penalty proceedings against Westpac in the Federal Court, alleging widespread compliance failures across multiple Westpac businesses.
The six matters filed against Westpac concern debt sales, deceased estates, general insurance, contribution fees, deregistered companies and insurance in super.
As a result, Westpac was fined $40 million for charging advice fees to over 11,800 deceased customers and needed to pay $73 million for the other five matters.
ASIC Deputy Chair Sarah Court said:"the breaches found by the Court in these six cases demonstrate a profound failure by Westpac over many years and across many areas of its business to implement appropriate systems and processes to ensure its customers were treated fairly. Westpac, like all licensees, has an obligation to be honest and fair in its provision of financial services. Despite this, Westpac failed to prioritise and fund the systems upgrades necessary to help fulfil this obligation."
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