The Full Federal Court has handed the Australian Securities and Investments Commission a win in a high-stakes appeal over what constitutes personal advice under financial services laws, finding Westpac violated its duty to act in its customers best interests through a superannuation rollover campaign.
International money transfer giant Western Union has successfully appealed a $160,000 judgment in an employment discrimination case, with the Full Federal Court finding the firm’s HR manager could not have known the employee, who was absent from work for seven months prior to the dismissal, actually suffered from a mental disability.
A former AMP general counsel responsible for preparing the financial giant for the banking royal commission has launched a $2.7 million lawsuit alleging “hostile, aggressive and intimidating behaviour” by superiors in response to formal complaints she made about the company’s fees for no services practices.
The costs of Westpac’s customer remediation for the 2019 financial year will approach $1 billion, the bank said Wednesday, as it revealed to the market a $341 million dent in its cash earnings for the second half of the year as part of its ongoing repayment program.
A judge has briefly stayed his $76.6 million judgment against IOOF subsidiary Australian Executor Trustees over the sale of a timber plantation by the collapsed Gunns Group as AET weighs an appeal of the ruling, which dismissed its cross-claim against law firm Sparke Helmore.
A judge has dismissed three proceedings by shareholders against the liquidator of failed global financial services firm Babcock & Brown, in a finding that highlights “serious problems” with market-based causation and may have ramifications for securities class actions.
Cash Converters has agreed to pay $42.5 million to settle a class action brought on behalf of consumers that took out personal loans, after reaching a $16.4 million settlement last year in a class action over interest charged on short-term loans.
A judge has signed off on a settlement of a long-running class action against Westpac unit BankSA, and has ruled the law firm that brought the case has an equitable right to unpaid legal costs for investigating the case before it found a funder.
Commonwealth Bank’s wealth management unit Colonial First State has been hit with a second class action in as many days, this one alleging it charged excesssive superannuation fees to fund commissions to financial advisers.
AMP, Asteron and Westpac have been singled out by ASIC for having higher than expected decline rates for total and permanent disability life insurance claims, in a new review by the corporate watchdog that also revealed a “concerningly high” 60 per cent rejection rate for some narrowly defined policies.