A class action accusing Westpac of issuing unsuitable home loans is pushing forward with overhauled pleadings after the corporate watchdog lost a related regulatory action, and the class now says it was enough that the bank failed to account for borrowers’ so-called essential expenses.
The former AMP general counsel who alleges she was bullied and sacked for complaining about the wealth manager’s fees for no service was not a whistleblower, but just one of many employees who raised concerns about the practice, the firm has said in a defence to the fired lawyer’s $2.7 million lawsuit.
The corporate regulator has imposed additional licence conditions on wealth manager IOOF to combat conflicts of interest in the group’s business structure revealed by the banking royal commission.
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.