The bank is still feeling the fallout of the Banking Royal Commission...nearly three years on.
Background: Westpac are one of Australia's biggest banks...and one of the banks to be heavily scrutinised in the 2019 Banking Royal Commission.
What happened: To this day, we're still seeing the fallout from that Royal Commission. Now, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (aka ASIC, the corporate regulator) has launched 6 lawsuits against Westpac.
What else: Among the claims, ASIC claim Westpac charged more than $10 million in financial advice fees to over 11,000 customers...who had actually died (i.e. they charged fees for no service). Westpac's agreed to the claims, and will cop $113 million in fines.
💡Fees for service is a payment model where services are provided in exchange for a fee. Sounds simple, right? But fee-for-service contracts can roll over year after year...even when you're no longer using that service (like ya gym membership).
💡But what the Banking Royal Commission uncovered was that banks were charging fees for no service. As a result, banks like AMP, NAB, ANZ, CommBank and Westpac have returned nearly $2 billion to customers for financial advice they never received.
💡Now, Westpac will be hoping to pay the fines...and move on. Nothin' to see here, folks.
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