Regulators accused Australia’s Westpac Banking Corp of 23mn breaches of anti-money laundering laws, saying the banking giant ignored red flags and for years enabled payments from convicted child offenders and “high risk” countries.
The oversight failure at Australia’s second-largest bank led to deep systemic non-compliance with anti-money laundering laws, financial crime watchdog AUSTRAC said in a civil court filing yesterday.
The regulator is pursuing fines of up to A$21mn ($14mn) for every transaction Westpac failed to monitor adequately or report on time in the country’s biggest ever money laundering scandal.
In theory, that could add up to whopping A$483tn in fines.
The lawsuit dwarfs …read more
Source:: Gulf times
