The CDPP’s decision to drop all criminal cartel charges against two banks and four individuals in a “test case” over a $2.5 billion ANZ share placement shows the ACCC “lacks expertise and objectivity” on the financial markets and should leave them to ASIC to regulate, according to one of the former accused.
In a stunning reversal, the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecution has dropped all criminal cartel charges against two investment banks and four individuals in relation to a $2.5 billion ANZ share placement, four years after the charges were brought following an allegedly questionable investigation by the ACCC.
A judge has raised concerns about a $6 million penalty proposed by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission against IOOF unit RI Advice for failing to rein in an adviser who reaped hefty commissions for steering clients towards risky investments.
Former ANZ super fund subsidiary OnePath overcharged more than $4 million in superannuation fees, according to regulatory action launched by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission on Tuesday.
A senior ACCC officer has been grilled on whether staff training on criminal cartel investigations was “inadequate” while the competition regulator ran a cartel probe into ANZ’s $2.5 billion share placement in 2016.
The Australia and New Zealand Banking Group has agreed to pay a $25 million penalty to resolve proceedings by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission alleging the bank short-changed hundreds of thousands of customers to the tune of $200 million.
A former ANZ trader who alleges he was sacked for complaining about the bank’s manipulation of the bank bill swap rate has lost his bid to view lawyers’ notes taken during meetings over ASIC’s investigation into the bank’s conduct.
A judge has said if he sides with a former ANZ trader in a privilege dispute with the bank over file notes from 2014 meetings over ASIC’s bank bill swap rate investigations it would create a “whole world of pain” for solicitors claiming privilege over their notes in other cases.
The ACCC has been accused of running a “experimental test case” that tries to fit the shares market within the scope of the Competition and Consumer Act with its criminal cartel case against Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and several prominent banking executives over a $2.5 billion ANZ share placement.
JPMorgan Australia chairman Rob Priestley told Citigroup and Deutsche Bank executives not to “panic” about picking up a shortfall in the sale of ANZ shares, a court has heard in the ACCC’s criminal cartel case over a $2.5 billion ANZ share placement.