Commonwealth Bank to pay $700m in settlement with Austrac over anti-money laundering claims

·         The Australian

·         9:27AM June 4, 2018

·          

·         MICHAEL RODDAN

Reporter

Sydney

RICHARD GLUYAS

Business Correspondent

Melbourne

Commonwealth Bank has agreed to a $700 million settlement with the anti-money laundering regulator — almost double its previous estimates — as it admits to breaching regulations more than 50,000 times.

CBA will pay a $700m civil penalty plus the regulator Austrac’s costs of $2.5m, as it admits to breaching anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing legislation, including failing to properly carry out risk procedures and customer monitoring. Some of Austrac’s allegations were dismissed as part of the mediated deal.

If agreed to by the Federal Court, this will represent the largest ever civil penalty in Australian corporate history.

CBA (CBA) had put aside $375 million in a provision for possible penalties stemming from Austrac’s allegations, which were launched in the Federal Court last August.

CBA’s intelligent deposit machines, which were rolled out in 2012, failed to automatically send the regulator information about potential washing of money through its smart ATMs by criminal syndicates and terrorist financiers.