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Australia Westpac Bank of Australia has negotiated to pay a record A 1.3bn (b 0.7bn; 9 0.9bn) for the country’s biggest money laundering law violation.
Last year, Australia’s Financial Crimes Watchdog said the bank had failed to adequately report on 19 million international transactions.
Some of the payments may have been linked to child abuse, officials said.
The country’s second-largest lender has apologized for its “failure.”
Westpac is Australia’s second-largest bank to pay hefty fines for anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism financing laws.
If the billion-dollar fine is upheld by a court, it will be the largest civil fine in Australian Australian corporate history.
However, the fines may be higher. Rac Strack said the transaction violates 23 million laws, with the maximum fine for each being 21 million.
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The former Westpac chief executive and chairman resigned last year over the scandal.
“We are committed to fixing these issues to ensure that these mistakes do not happen again,” Chief Executive Peter King said in a statement on Thursday.
Westpac self-reported last year that it had breached the Australian Trading Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (racstrack). It also disclosed to the shareholders the investigation including the forecast penalty.
Image copyright pyriteGetty ImagesThe bank said on Thursday it had reached an agreement to settle a court case run by Aust Struck.
Most violations due to the bank’s failure to report international transfers to the rules are required by law in a timely manner.
Unsafe transactions between 2013 and 2019 amounted to more than 11 11 billion, Unstrak said.
It said the bank had also failed to maintain records and examine its dealings with potentially high-risk foreign banks.
Rac Strack said there are also much lower payments on accounts that are potentially linked to “child abuse risks”.
“Failure to pass on information … undermines the integrity of Australia’s financial system and impedes police investigations when it comes to supporting the ability to track the roots of financial transactions,” said Nicole Rose, the regulator’s boss last year.
The case has been the subject of several investigations into the failure of top banks around the world to stop money laundering.
HSBC, Denske Bank and Rabobank are all involved in high-profile scams.
Australia In Australia, Westpac’s rival Commonwealth Bank paid $ 700 million in fines for similar violations in 2018, including 53,000 suspicious transactions.
The country’s banking sector was also the subject of a royal commission last year – Australia’s highest form of public inquiry – which exposed widespread irregularities in the industry.
