AMP has shot back at Royal Commission findings that it committed a criminal offence over its fees-for-no-service scandal and has defended a report prepared by law firm Clayton Utz over the issue.
MyBudget has exploited tens of thousands of customers already in financial difficulty and owes them interest on money they entrusted to the debt management company, the federal Court heard at the end of a two-day class action hearing Thursday.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia has admitted a breach of data affecting nearly 20 million accounts, but said Thursday there was no evidence that customers’ details were stolen.
The Australian Financial Complaints Authority is gearing up for a launch later this year, with four new board members announced this week.
AMP’s general counsel Brian Salter says he did not know he was sacked until he read the company’s announcement to the Australian Stock Exchange on Monday morning.
An employment dispute between financial advisory StatePlus and former program and project manager Mark Lawson has been ordered into mediation, with a Federal Court Judge saying the case could be “very ugly” if it went to trial.
AMP’s chairwoman Catherine Brennar has resigned and the firm’s general counsel has left, as the company faces possible criminal charges for misleading the corporate regulator over its decade-long practice of charging undue fees to clients.
AMP could be hit with criminal charges after counsel assisting the Royal Commissioner said Friday evidence before the commission had shown the wealth management firm may have broken the law when it charged fees for no service, lied about the practice to ASIC, and presented a heavily-edited Clayton Utz report to the corporate regulator as independent.
The former directors of defunct financial advisory firm Storm Financial have filed an appeal after the Federal Court slapped them each with a $70,000 fine and banned them from managing corporations for seven years.
Clayton Utz’s public statements referencing its terms of engagement with AMP in drafting an independent report are irrelevant if it knew the document was destined for the corporate regulator, legal experts say, and transcripts from the Royal Commission suggest the law firm did know.