Westpac scandal: Australian bank ‘breached anti-money-laundering laws 23 million times’, watchdog claims
- Australia’s second-largest bank is accused of ignoring red flags and enabling payments from convicted child sex offenders in ‘high risk’ countries
- Lawsuit claims Westpac knew of ‘heightened child exploitation risks’ in Philippines and other Southeast Asian nations but took no action
The oversight failure led to deep systemic non-compliance with anti-money-laundering laws, financial crime watchdog Austrac said in a civil court filing.
The regulator is pursuing fines of up to A$21 million (US$14 million) for every transaction Westpac failed to monitor adequately or report on time.
“These contraventions are the result of systemic failures in its control environment, indifference by senior management and inadequate oversight by the Board,” Austrac said in the court filing.
Westpac said it had self-reported the breaches to Austrac and had since shut down the service at the centre of the complaint which let customers and affiliate overseas banks process payments from Australia.
“These issues should never have occurred and should have been identified and rectified sooner,” Westpac CEO Brian Hartzer said in the statement. “It is disappointing that we have not met our own standards as well as regulatory expectations and requirements.”
