The AMP Limited (ASX: AMP) share price has edged lower today after being hit with another class action.
In afternoon trade the embattled financial services company's shares are down 0.5% to $2.18.
This small decline means that AMP's shares are now down almost 44% since this time last year.
What is this new class action?
According to a media release, this morning Maurice Blackburn filed a class action in the Federal Court on behalf of all AMP superannuation fund account holders.
The action filed today claims that the AMP trustees, whose duty was to act in the best interests of members, failed to monitor, compare, negotiate or seek reductions of hefty fees being pocketed by related AMP Group companies. This resulted in AMP members being charged unjustifiably high fees for an extended period of time.
Principal Lawyer at Maurice Blackburn, Brooke Dellavedova, advised why the law firm was taking action.
She said: "It's important that inquiries and regulators uncover mass wrongdoing of this nature, but that doesn't give people back their hard-earned superannuation funds, which they need for their retirement. We estimate that over two million accounts have been impacted by AMP's alleged misconduct."
Adding: "Importantly, the matter will proceed in a way that means no one has to dip into their own pockets to fund the litigation. AMP account holders can band together to recover compensation, in circumstances where most people would not bring a case on their own."
This is the second class action that Maurice Blackburn has filed against AMP. The other being a class action on behalf of shareholders arising from revelations at the Financial Services Royal Commission of systemic misconduct at AMP.
This afternoon AMP acknowledged that a superannuation class action proceeding had been filed against it. The company's response was very brief and advised that "the proceeding will be vigorously defended."
It certainly has been a busy week for Maurice Blackburn. Earlier this week the law firm filed a Federal Court class action against UBS, Barclays, Citibank, Royal Bank of Scotland and JP Morgan, claiming the banks colluded to rig foreign exchange rates during the period between 1 January 2008 and 15 October 2013.
It is also conducting a class action against Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC) on behalf of persons who entered into unsuitable loans secured by residential property with the bank from January 2011 and who have suffered, or are likely to, suffer loss.
