Westpac slammed with $3.3m fine for BBSW manipulation

westpac/BBSW/fine/federal-court/financial-planning/ASIC/australian-securities-and-investments-commission/penalty/misconduct/

12 November 2018
| By Anastasia Santoreneos |
image
image
expand image

The Federal Court has ordered Westpac to pay a $3.3 million penalty for its involvement in setting the BBSW in 2010.

The order follows Justice Beach’s judgment in May that found the bank had traded on four occasions in 2010 with a dominant purpose of influencing yields of traded Prime Bank Bills and where the BBSW was set in a way that was favourable to its rate set exposure.

In his judgment, Justice Beach said the bank’s misconduct was serious and unacceptable, and that Westpac had not shown the contrition of other banks.

“Moreover, imposing the maximum penalty is the only step available to me to achieve specific and general deterrence,” said Beach. “The message that should be sent is that if you manipulate or attempt to manipulate key benchmark rates you are likely to have the maximum penalty imposed, whatever that is from time to time.”

The Court also ordered that an independent expert be appointed to review whether Westpac’s current systems, policies and procedures are appropriate, and to report back to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission within nine months.

Read more about:

AUTHOR

Recommended for you

sub-bgsidebar subscription

Never miss the latest news and developments in wealth management industry

MARKET INSIGHTS

So we are now underwriting criminal scams?...

2 months ago

Glad to see the back of you Steve. You made financial more expensive, not more affordable as you claim, and presided ...

2 months ago

Completely agree Peter. The definition of 'significant change is circumstances relevant to the scope of the advice' is s...

4 months ago

Entireti has unveiled the new name for the AMP financial advice businesses that it acquired last year....

4 weeks 1 day ago

A Sydney financial adviser has been permanently banned from providing any financial services, with the regulator deriding his “lack of integrity, trustworthiness and prof...

3 weeks ago

Minister for Financial Services, Stephen Jones, has provided further information about the second tranche of the Delivering Better Financial Outcomes (DBFO) reforms....

1 week 6 days ago

TOP PERFORMING FUNDS