News: CBA UPDATE 1-Ex-CBA unit fined $1.2 mln for charging fees from dead pensioners

(Adds comment from Avanteos Investments)

June 15 (Reuters) - Australia's corporate regulator on Wednesday fined a former unit of top lender Commonwealth Bank (CBA) A$1.7 million ($1.2 million) for charging fees from deceased superannuation members.

The unit, Avanteos Investments, was a part of wealth manager Colonial First State, in which CBA divested its majority stake in 2020 to private equity giant KKR KKR.N .

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission said 499 deceased members with funds in Avanteos pension products were wrongly charged almost A$700,000 because the company failed to update its defective disclosure statements.

The regulator said this was the first instance of a criminal prosecution for a company failing to update its defective disclosure statements.

Avanteos came under scanner https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/cbas-former-unit-pleads-guilty-pension-fund-charges-regulator-2021-12-08 during an investigation into the "fees for no service" conduct as part of a broader Royal Commission into the country's financial sector in 2018.

The investment platform operator acknowledged the judgment in an emailed response to Reuters, and said it had completed a remediation programme and refunded all unauthorised adviser service fees deducted from deceased members' accounts.

($1 = 1.4461 Australian dollars)