{"id":166132,"date":"2018-06-04T02:46:32","date_gmt":"2018-06-04T06:46:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=166132"},"modified":"2018-06-04T02:46:32","modified_gmt":"2018-06-04T06:46:32","slug":"australias-largest-bank-to-pay-531-million-compliance-fine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/06\/04\/australias-largest-bank-to-pay-531-million-compliance-fine\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia’s largest bank to pay $531 million compliance fine"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the nation’s largest bank, said on Monday it has agreed to pay a 700 million Australian dollar ($531 million) fine for failing to comply with measures to prevent money laundering and terrorism financing. (Photo<\/a>: Commonwealth Bank\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

CANBERRA, Australia \u2014 The Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the nation’s largest bank, said on Monday it has agreed to pay a 700 million Australian dollar ($531 million) fine for failing to comply with measures to prevent money laundering and terrorism financing.<\/p>\n

The bank negotiated the fine with the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Center, the government’s financial intelligence agency better known as AUSTRAC, to resolve a civil Federal Court case that began in August. The agreement is subject to court approval.<\/p>\n

The bank has also agreed to pay AUSTRAC’s AU$2.5 million legal costs.<\/p>\n

The bank admitted that it was late in reporting more than 53,500 suspicious transactions exceeding AU$10,000 between 2012 and 2015. Each offence was punishable by a fine of up to AU$21 million.<\/p>\n

The bank blamed a single software error in its deposit-taking automated teller machines and argued those violations should be treated as one rather than as a series of individual offences.<\/p>\n

The suspicious transactions were conducted by people connected to the international drug trade and the bank suspected some transactions may have been associated with terrorism financing.<\/p>\n

Matt Comyn, who became the bank’s chief executive officer in April, said in a statement that court approval of the agreement would bring certainty to one of the most significant issues the bank has faced.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile not deliberate, we fully appreciate the seriousness of the mistakes we made. Our agreement today is a clear acknowledgement of our failures and is an important step toward moving the bank forward. On behalf of Commonwealth Bank, I apologize to the community for letting them down,\u201d Comyn said.<\/p>\n

The statement added that it would work closely with AUSTRAC on a constructive approach to combating financial crime and protecting the integrity of the financial system.<\/p>\n

The government welcomed the agreement.<\/p>\n

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said the bank’s disregard for its obligations allowed criminals to exploit its systems and put the Australian community at risk.<\/p>\n

Treasurer Scott Morrison said that the Australian public expected the financial sector to better protect itself from exploitation by criminals and individuals associated with terrorist groups.<\/p>\n

\u201cComplying with the law is non-negotiable, especially when it comes to our largest financial institutions that Australians rely on for their homes and businesses and the government is serious about enforcing any breaches,\u201d Morrison said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CANBERRA, Australia \u2014 The Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the nation’s largest bank, said on Monday it has agreed to pay …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":166134,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[51653,51654],"class_list":["post-166132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-commonwealth-bank-of-australia","tag-compliance-fine","mauthors-rod-mcguirk","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}