The Australian Securities and Investments Commission spent over $1.8 million in taxpayer funds investigating and prosecuting its now failed responsible lending case against Westpac.
Australia and New Zealand Banking Group and Commonwealth Bank of Australia have lost a third attempt to escape a rate-rigging class action in the US, with a judge calling the banks’ arguments unpersuasive.
Shine Lawyers is investigating two new class actions against Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Westpac’s BT Funds Management over allegedly excessive insurance premiums, a week after filing a similar case against AMP’s life insurance arm.
Westpac anti-money laundering compliance troubles continue to worsen, with the bank reporting an additional 365,000 incomplete or inaccurate threshold transaction reports to AUSTRAC.
ASIC has dropped its fight with Westpac over the bank’s financial assessment of home loan borrowers following political pressure, citing the “challenging economic circumstances”.
Westpac has been hit with a class action over a “shonky” car loan scheme, in what is the first class to be filed in Victoria Supreme Court following passage of a state law allowing lawyers to earn contingency fees.
Westpac has denied claims in a shareholder class action filed in the wake of AUSTRAC proceedings alleging 23 million breaches of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism finance laws, saying the information the class action says it should have disclosed to shareholders “did not exist”.
Westpac is facing a class action over an allegedly dishonest car loan scheme that was eventually banned by the corporate regulator.
A judge on Friday dismissed Westpac’s bid for an update from litigation funder JustKapital as to whether it continues to financially back a class action against the bank over allegedly excessive insurance premiums.
Westpac has become the latest company to discover it shortchanged workers, announcing it will pay $8 million to around 8,000 current and former staff who were not paid long service leave entitlements.