Professor Allan Fels of the ACCC when interviewed on the AUSTRAC saga re: Westpac said Westpac can withstand quite easily a fine of several billion without any disruption to its current business (inference of not changing anything including Dividends): other than a change in Management and management practices and keeping up with its regulatory compliance issues. Anticipate > $1Bn Westpac would and should contest. Note: despite all that has happened - nothing gets away from the fact that AUSTRAC/ AFP new and were suspicious of the activity from March 2019 of the particular 12 Westpac customers remitting to Asia and requested Westpac to continue to monitor/ report going forward from then ... AUSTRAC seems to argue that AUSTRAC was suspicious of these customers and what they may/ are about - Westpac should have taken the initiative and closed their accounts : may be true. But why play regulatory 'games' other than to seek the $Bn 'prize' games and not actually tell Westpac of their concerns/ suspicions at least ? Penalty must therefore be moderated. Entrapment not on ! I'm still punting on a $500m Settlement due to the large number of non-reports of the suspicious reportable transactions (SRT's).
WBC Price at posting:
$24.29 Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
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