The Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC) share price will be one to watch on Monday after it announced that it has been hit with yet another class action.
What did Westpac announce?
This morning Westpac announced that Rosen Law Firm has filed a class action lawsuit against it in the United States on behalf of purchasers of its securities between November 11 2015 and November 19 2019 inclusive.
The banking giant advised that the claim seeks to recover damages of an unspecified amount and relates to market disclosure issues connected to Westpac's monitoring of financial crime over the period and matters which are the subject of the recent AUSTRAC proceeding in the Federal Court.
The bank's former CEO, Brian Hartzer, and its current CEO, Peter King, have been named as defendants.
What did Rosen Law Firm say?
Rosen Law Firm claims that the defendants throughout the class period made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that:
(1) contrary to Australian law, the company failed to report over 19.5 million international funds transfer instructions to AUSTRAC, Australia's anti money-laundering and terrorism financing regulator;
(2) the company did not appropriately monitor and assess the ongoing money laundering and terrorism financing risks associated with movement of money into and out of Australia;
(3) the company did not pass on requisite information about the source of funds to other banks in the transfer chain;
(4) despite being aware of the heightened risks, the company did not carry out appropriate due diligence on transactions in South East Asia and the Philippines that had known financial indicators relating to child exploitation risks;
(5) the company's AML/CTF Program was inadequate to identify, mitigate and manage money laundering and terrorism financing risks;
(6) as a result, defendants' statements about its business, operations, and prospects, were materially false and misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis at all relevant times.
What is Rosen Law Firm?
Rosen Law Firm represents investors throughout the world and concentrates its practice in securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation.
It was ranked number one by ISS Securities Class Action Services for number of securities class action settlements in 2017.
The firm has been ranked in the top three each year since 2013 and has secured hundreds of millions of dollars for investors.
