A judge overseeing a class action against Colonial First State Investments has raised concerns about a $655 million dividend to CBA, questioning whether group members’ recovery could be in danger.
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has urged the Full Court to toss ASIC’s challenge to a decision dismissing its conflicted remuneration case over the bank’s sale of its Essential Super product, saying the appeal suffered from “fatal” flaws.
Westpac has lost a bid to keep group members in the dark about the premiums paid for allegedly worthless consumer credit insurance, information the bank said could inflate expectations about settlements worth $126 million reached in three class actions.
ASIC has lost a case accusing the Commonwealth Bank of Australia of hitting customers with $55 million in unauthorised fees, with a judge finding that nearly 1 million customers charged the fees should have known that even banks “sometimes make mistakes”.
Westpac has objected to several proposed notices going out to group members in a class action over ‘junk’ consumer credit insurance, which three of the Big Four banks have agreed to pay $126 million to settle.
The former chief executive of Commonwealth Bank has told a court internal auditors raised issues with CBA’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing compliance four years before AUSTRAC took action that saw the bank’s share price plummet.
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia and unit CommSec have reached an agreement with the Fair Work Ombudsman on liability in enforcement action alleging they knowingly underpaid almost 7,500 employees over $16.4 million.
Three of the Big Four banks have agreed to pay a total of $126 million to settle class actions on behalf of up to one million customers who were sold consumer credit insurance.
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has argued that disclosing its money laundering failures before AUSTRAC brought proceedings would have misled the market, as the bank takes the rare move of defending a shareholder class action at trial.
While CBA’s defence to a shareholder class action argues the bank did not need to disclose money laundering failures because it doubted AUSTRAC would take legal action, communications show it was drafting a defence six months before proceedings started, a trial has heard.