Westpac to pay record $1.3bn fine after money laundering and child exploitation investigation
Ben Butler, 23 September 2020
Westpac has agreed to pay a record penalty of $1.3bn to settle legal action over money laundering and child exploitation allegations levelled against it by the financial intelligence agency, Austrac.
The $1.3bn figure is $400m more than the $900m the bank had previously set aside as an estimate of the penalty it would have to pay and comes after the bank said an additional 250 customers made transactions consistent with child exploitation – a dramatic increase on the 12 over which the regulator originally took action.
In a further concession to Austrac, Westpac has also agreed to additional contraventions of anti-money laundering and counter-terror finance laws, the company told the stock exchange on Thursday.
The deal between the bank and the regulator is subject to approval by the federal court.
In November last year, Austrac launched federal court action accusing Westpac of breaching AML-CTF laws more than 23m times, including by allowing a dozen customers to transfer money to the Philippines in a way consistent with child exploitation.
But in a statement of agreed facts, to be filed with the court, Westpac said that in December last year it “completed a review of all child exploitation transaction types for the Philippines, south-east Asia and Mexico over the prior three year period”.
