The Commonwealth Bank of Australia admitted to a significant number of the breaches of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws.
The bank has filed its response to the civil proceedings launched by Australia's financial intelligence agency Austrac in the Federal Court. The defence includes an admission that it was late in filing more than 53,500 reports of transactions of $10,000 or more through its intelligent deposit-taking ATMs between 2012 and 2015.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) admits that it did not undertake a separate money laundering and terrorism financing risk assessment on its intelligent deposit machines prior to their roll-out over five years ago. Three assessments of the risks conducted by the bank in 2015, 2016 and 2017 found the inherent risk borne by the machines was «high».
Last month, CBA's chair apologized to the bank's shareholders in failing to comply with anti-money laundering laws. Outgoing CEO Ian Narev, who retires at the end of the financial year, was also mournful in his final speech.
