Australia's financial regulator has commenced civil penalty proceedings in the Federal Court against Westpac subsidiaries Westpac Securities Administration and BT Funds Management.
The proceedings follow an investigation by The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) into Westpac's telephone sales campaigns targeting superannuation fund members.
ASIC's case sets out 15 examples of alleged contraventions of the «best interests duty» arising from two telephone campaigns instigated by Westpac Securities Administration (WSA) and BT Funds Management (BTFM).
Unauthorised Advice
WSA and BTFM are not permitted to provide personal financial product advice under their Australian financial services licences (AFSLs), ASIC said, and they allegedly did not undertake proper comparison of the superannuation funds as required by law.
These proceedings form part of ASIC's Wealth Management Project, focusing on the wealth divisions of the major banks.
