Business
21:56, 11-Aug-2017
Australia's Commonwealth Bank refuses money laundering charges
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Australia’s largest bank, Commonwealth Bank faces fines of up to 1 trillion AUD over charges related to money laundering. Federal regulators said the bank allegedly allowed thousands of transactions through some of its automated tellers that were used for criminal activity.
Several days after the Commonwealth Bank was implicated in one of Australia’s largest financial scandals ever, its CEO, Ian Narev said there was no evidence of the charges.
Federal regulators who disagreed said the bank allegedly failed to deal with more than 50,000 suspicious cash transactions deposited into its smart ATMs, even after being alerted about possible criminal activity.
They suspected that the deposits involved money being laundered by drug rings. At least 11 people allegedly tied to the rings have reportedly been arrested.
The Commonwealth Bank blamed the incident on a coding error which it said had since been fixed. The bank also said it plans to file a defense against the charges.
Narev has refused to step down. In a move seen to address public concerns, the bank announced that it was scrapping short term bonuses for Narev and other senior executives.
The CEO’s comments came on the same day when the Commonwealth Bank announced record profits of nearly 10 billion AUDs for the last financial year.
The charges were the latest scandal involving Australia’s four major banks, including questionable financial planning and health insurance practices.