Westpac to pay $80.6mn for charging dead people

Bloomberg

Westpac Banking Corp agreed to pay A$113 million ($80.6 million) in penalties after the Australian regulator alleged the lender had widespread compliance failures that included charging dead people.
The case includes a claim that Westpac charged more than A$10 million ($7.01 million) in fees for financial advice to over 11,000 deceased customers over a 10-year period, according to a statement from the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC).
Westpac, in a separate statement, said it reached agreement with ASIC to resolve six separate longstanding matters with the agreed civil penalty. The bank has “substantially provisioned” for the penalties together with anticipated
legal costs in its 2021 full-year results, according to the statement.
Westpac last year paid a record A$1.3 billion fine to settle Australia’s largest breach of anti-money laundering laws, a saga that cost former Chief Executive Officer Brian Hartzer his job. Scrutiny of the country’s biggest banks remains high after years of scandals and a slew of misbehaviour.

‘Poor Systems’
“A common aspect across these matters has been poor systems, poor processes and poor governance, which is suggestive of an overall poor compliance culture within Westpac at the relevant time,” ASIC Deputy Chair Sarah Court said in the statement.
Westpac Chief Exective Officer Peter King said his staff have been working to resolve and correct the problems.
“This outcome is an important step forward for us as we continue to fix issues and build stronger risk foundations,” King said in the statement.
Westpac admitted the allegations in each of the proceedings and will return approximately A$80 million to customers.
Other matters filed against Westpac include these allegations that the bank distributed duplicate insurance policies to more than 7,000 customers for the same property at the same time.
Westpac subsidiary BT Funds Management has allegedly charged members insurance premiums that included commission payments, despite being banned under legislation.
The bank has sold customer credit card and flexi-loan debt to debt purchasers with incorrect interest rates. These interest rates were higher than Westpac was contractually allowed to charge on at least part of the debts, resulting in more than 16,000 customers, who were likely to be in financial distress, being overcharged
interest.