Westpac Australia settles money laundering case for $1.3 billion

Westpac in Australia has reached a deal with AUSTRAC to settle more than 23 million alleged breaches of anti-money laundering laws by paying a record $1.3 billion penalty.

The penalty is the biggest in Australian corporate history and is almost double the previous record $700 million fine paid by the Commonwealth Bank for almost 54,000 money laundering breaches, revealed by the ABC in 2017.

In a statement, AUSTRAC said Westpac had admitted to breaching the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act more than 23 million times.

Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre is responsible for picking up criminal abuse of the financial system in Australia.

These breaches included a failure to properly report more than 19.5 million international funds transfer instructions amounting to more than $11 billion.

AUSTRAC said the breaches included suspicious transactions associated with possible child exploitation as well as failure to assess risks of money laundering and terrorism financing.

[Source: ABC]