Sydney (AFP)
The Australian bank Westpac, one of the four largest in the country, announced the resignation of its chief executive Brian Hartzer, after the regulator has accused the bank of anti-money laundering violations to the tune of more than 7 billion dollars.
"As CEO, I accept being ultimately placed in my responsibilities for everything that happens in the bank," said Hartzer, quoted in a statement.
"And it is clear that we have been far from what everyone expects of us, and what we expect from ourselves," he added.
President Lindsay Maxsted will leave the bank "in the first half of 2020" and a veteran of the board, Ewen Crouch, will not seek re-election next month, added the bank, which will have a new management team to manage the fallout of the scandal.
Current Chief Financial Officer Peter King will be taking over the position of Executive Director on December 2nd, the time to hire a new boss.
Australia's financial intelligence service Austrac announced last week that it has filed a lawsuit against the bank, which it says has failed to report more than 19.5 million international fund transfers, including "high-risk transactions". "with the Philippines and Southeast Asian countries, potentially linked to child exploitation.
"The bureau recognizes the seriousness of the facts identified by Austrac," said Maxsted in a statement announcing the changes. "It became obvious that a change of office and direction was in the interest of the bank".
The Australian financial sector and its "Big Four" (Commonwealth, NAB, ANZ and Westpac) have seen their reputation tarnished by serial scandals in recent years, including the publication in February of a survey pinpointing bad practices in the financial sector. country.
The regulator had denounced abusive billing of services, to dead customers for example, or aggressive sales methods for financial products that were ill-suited to customers.
© 2019 AFP