Factbox: Penalties imposed on Australian companies over the recent years

Tabcorp Holdings

30/05/2023 08:15

May 30 (Reuters) - Australian regulators have over the
recent years fined a slew of companies over breaches and
non-compliance issues, with the country's "Big Four" banks
penalised the heaviest over money laundering and plenty of other
charges.
    Here are some of the major penalties imposed by the
regulators:
    
    
    AMP LTD  AMP.AX 
    Troubled Australian wealth manager AMP Ltd was fined a
court-mandated penalty of A$24 million in May for billing dead
clients for insurance and financial advice.
    
    ANZ GROUP HOLDINGS  ANZ.AX  
    An Australian court fined the country's fourth-largest bank,
ANZ Group Holdings, A$10 million in penalties in March for
non-compliance with consumer credit protection laws in a case
that stems from the Royal Commission proceedings.
    In October 2022, ANZ was penalised A$25 million for failing
to provide certain benefits it had agreed to give customers.
    
    COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA  CBA.AX  
    Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the country's biggest
lender, in June 2018 agreed to pay a penalty of A$700 million to
settle money laundering charges brought by Australia's financial
intelligence agency.
    In October 2022, CBA's trading unit was fined A$20 million
for compliance failures in delivering financial services.
    
    CROWN RESORTS
    On May 30, Crown Resorts and Australia's financial crime
regulator agreed to a A$450 million penalty after the casino
operator failed to prevent money laundering and criminal
activity at its casinos.
    Crown was also fined A$120 million by the state of Victoria
in November last year for serious misconduct and breaches
including failure to prevent gambling harm.
    Separately, the state fined Crown A$80 million in May last
year for enabling illegal transfer of funds from China.
    
    NATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK  NAB.AX  
    National Australia Bank, the country's second-largest bank,
was charged A$18.5 million penalty in August 2021 by a court for
issuing misleading fee disclosure statements or none at all.
    
    STAR ENTERTAINMENT GROUP  SGR.AX  
    The Queensland government in December 2022 slapped penalties
totalling A$100 million on Star Entertainment after findings
proved that the casino operator did not meet certain regulatory
requirements.
    
    TABCORP HOLDINGS  TAH.AX  
    In March 2017, Tabcorp was ordered to pay a A$45-million
civil penalty on non-compliance with the anti-money laundering
and counter-terrorism financing law.
    
    TLOU ENERGY LTD  TOU.AX 
    In October 2022, Australia's corporate watchdog imposed a
fine of A$53,280 on Tlou Energy over allegations of
'greenwashing', or exaggerated claims regarding environmentally
friendly investments, making it the regulator's first time to
crack down on such a misconduct.
    
    TELECOM FIRMS
    Three Australian telecom firms: Telstra Group  TLS.AX , a
unit of TPG Telecom  TPG.AX , and Optus, a unit of Singapore
Telecommunications  STEL.SI , were ordered by a court to pay a
collective A$33.5 million in penalties for making misleading
claims about the speed of some NBN internet plans.
    
    WESTPAC BANKING CORP  WBC.AX 
    Australia's third-biggest lender, Westpac Banking Corp was
ordered to pay A$113 million in penalties in April 2022 for
multiple compliance failures across its businesses.
    In September 2020, Westpac was slapped with a record A$1.3
billion fine to settle a lawsuit accusing it of enabling
millions of payments to people exploiting children.

 (Compiled by Sameer Manekar in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh
Kuber)
 ((Sameer.Manekar@thomsonreuters.com;))