Insurer QBE wants to downsize a massive class action brought against it and banking giant ANZ over the sale of allegedly worthless add on insurance.
A local court magistrate overseeing the ANZ criminal cartel case has denied a bid by prosecutors to be given twice the length of time typically allotted to parties for case conference discussions, saying the sooner the proceedings can be transferred to the Federal Court the better.
Australia’s largest financial services institutions have paid or offered to pay more than $882 million to remediate customers affected by their fees for no service conduct, the Australian Securities and Investment Commission has revealed.
A judge has accused the parties in a class action against ANZ over the sale of allegedly worthless insurance of “putting their pens down” and failing to advance the case until a strike out application is resolved.
Australia and New Zealand Banking Group and Commonwealth Bank of Australia have lost a third attempt to escape a rate-rigging class action in the US, with a judge calling the banks’ arguments unpersuasive.
A senior officer from the ACCC has rejected claims that the regulator took legal advice from immunity applicant JPMorgan before launching its high profile criminal cartel case against ANZ, Citigroup and Deutsche Bank.
A former high-ranking Deutsche Bank executive charged with involvement in an alleged cartel agreement relating to a $2.5 billion ANZ share placement claims he was dragged into the case becaused of the “incredibly slapdash” methods of the ACCC.
ANZ Banking Group has slammed a decision by the ACCC to escalate concerns that one of its key cartel witnesses was not being “full and frank”, claiming this was a way to put pressure on the witness and bring his evidence into line.
The ACCC’s investigatory techniques have come under fire during a hearing over an alleged criminal cartel agreement between ANZ and two investment banks, with a barrister for one of the banks suggesting investigators from the regulator deliberately did not take notes during hundreds of days of witness interviews to avoid disclosure.
Despite receiving immunity in a criminal cartel case against ANZ and two other investment banks, JPMorgan has disputed the existence of any cartel agreement since the early days of the ACCC’s investigations, a court has heard.