Australia’s largest banks are weak when it comes to offering competitive prices on residential mortgages, Australia’s consumer regulator said Thursday in the first review undertaken by its newly formed financial services unit.
Slater and Gordon is mulling a class action against Australian banks over credit card insurance, which the firm describes as “worthless” and “junk” because many people who are sold the insurance are not eligible to make a claim.
The former head of collapsed debenture firm Provident Capital has gotten court approval to appeal a ruling banning him from managing companies.
A judge has called for a referee to look at Maurice Blackburn’s fees for running a shareholder class action against QBE Insurance that settled late last year for $133 million.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said it is well positioned to investigate competition in the financial sector, in response to a recent report calling for a dedicated financial services competition regulator.
The Bank of Queensland has reached a settlement close to trial in a class action brought by investors in a multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme masterminded by jailed scammer Bradley Sherwin.
It might be in the glare of a government inquiry, but business is booming for Australian litigation backer IMF Bentham, which values its current caseload at $4.7 billion.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has banned a financial adviser for five years for failing to act in his clients’ best interests, the second action taken by the corporate regulator through a project that uses data to target bad life insurance advisers.
Westpac was responsible for the conduct of its in-house financial planner, who allegedly overcharged the bank’s own customers with excess premiums on life insurance, class action lawyers have told a court.
A judge has rejected Amaca’s bid for indemnity costs in a case over contributions to an asbestos class action settlement, but he did not rule on the company’s novel argument that a settlement resulting from mediation could count as the outcome of litigation in awarding costs.