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“I would like to apologise sincerely for the bank’s failings,” CEO Peter King stated in an announcement. “We are committed to fixing these issues to ensure that these mistakes do not happen again. This has been my number one priority.”
Westpac shares slumped Thursday in Sydney, and had been final buying and selling down about 1%.
Australian regulators pursued authorized motion in opposition to Westpac almost a yr in the past after they stated the financial institution didn’t report tens of millions of directions for monetary transfers out and in of Australia.
The regulatory watchdog stated on the time that Westpac uncared for to do its due diligence on transactions to the Philippines and different components of Southeast Asia “that have known financial indicators relating to potential child exploitation.”
The allegations rocked the financial institution and led to the resignation of former CEO Brian Hartzer final November.
The penalty displays the “serious and systemic nature” of Westpac’s non-compliance, AUSTRAC stated in an announcement Thursday.
“We have been, and will continue to work collaboratively with Westpac and all businesses we regulate to support them to meet their compliance and reporting obligations to ensure this doesn’t happen again in the future,” stated AUSTRAC chief government Nicole Rose.
— Angus Watson contributed to this report.
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