Westpac: Australian Bank To Pay A$113 Million For Charging Deceased Customers
On Tuesday, Australian bank Westpac said it will likely be fined A$113 million for alleged compliance failures across the company for several years. This includes charging financial advice to thousands of deceased customers.
Westpac admitted to six civil penalty proceedings that were filed by Australia’s securities regulator, including claims against its banking, superannuation wealth management, and divested general insurance units.
According to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), Westpac charged more than A$10 million in advice fees to over 11,000 deceased customers. ASIC also claims that Westpac distributed duplicate insurance policies to over 7,000 of its clients.
In a statement, Westpac chief executive Peter King said, “In each of these matters, Westpac has fallen short of our standards and the standards our customers expect of us. The issues raised in these matters should not have occurred, and our processes, systems and monitoring should have been better. We are putting things right and unreservedly apologise to our customers.”
Westpac, alongside ASIC, is expected to propose a A$113 million penalty to the federal court, with A$80 million set to be remediated to the bank’s customers.
