Westpac CEO Brian Hartzer hangs on after board says sorry.Credit:AAP
While AUSTRAC is seeking civil penalties against Westpac,Mr Frydenberg signalled further action under laws that could give rise to substantial fines and the disqualification of directors.
“There must be accountability and that will obviously involve decisions that they take about the futures of senior management,as well as the board,” he said.
“These are very serious issues,both in terms of the nature and the number of alleged breaches. We’re talking about 23 million alleged breaches of the anti-money laundering laws,we’re talking about the failure to adequately assess customers with links to child trafficking and child pornography.”
Mr Frydenberg said APRA had the authority to punish companies,directors and executives where there had been a failure to perform their duties.
He noted that the Banking Executive Accountability Regime (BEAR) was legislated in 2018 and was not retrospective,while some of the alleged Westpac offences date back to 2013.
“APRA is an independent agency like AUSTRAC and they will determine their own conclusions,but what I will say is that they are looking at it and obviously they have particular powers under that legislation that we introduced,” he said.
Asked on ABC’sInsiders program what action he wanted to see,Mr Frydenberg said there was a lack of “trust and confidence” in the banking sector and noted that the Westpac annual general meeting was coming up on December 12.