News: SGH Australia's CBA pension arm sued over fees

Oct 18 (Reuters) - Commonwealth Bank of Australia's (CBA) pension arm Colonial First State has been hit with a second lawsuit in two days, this time for allegedly charging excessive fees to customers which were used to pay ongoing commissions to financial advisers.

Law firm Slater & Gordon Ltd (SGH) said http://bit.ly/31qJCwn it had filed the class-action suit on behalf of 500,000 customers, and that it related to members of the FirstChoice Super fund.

CBA, the country's largest lender, acknowledged the class action proceedings and said it was reviewing the claim.

The latest lawsuit follows Thursday's legal action by Maurice Blackburn Lawyers against the arm for allegedly failing to act quickly enough to move members out of high-fee default investment options to a simpler product as required by law.

Last year, a powerful public inquiry into financial sector wrongdoing found widespread over-charging of fees and other misconduct throughout the industry, triggering multiple class-action lawsuits and tougher oversight from regulators.

Slater & Gordon previously filed a class-action suit against CBA seeking damages of more than A$100 million ($68 million), alleging the bank had invested the retirement savings of thousands of customers into low, uncompetitive interest-returning products.

($1 = 1.4635 Australian dollars)