The National Australia Bank said it had disclosed anti-money laundering failures to authorities just one day after regulators filed a lawsuit against it over «fees for no services».
«We have reported to AUSTRAC that we have had some shortcomings,» NAB chairman Philip Chronican told shareholders in Sydney, according to a «Reuters» report.
Chronican said that he was not aware of any action underway from AUSTRAC, adding that «we really won’t know until we have fixed those issues» and that the shortcomings were not of the scale reported in other organizations, likely referring to Westpac child exploitation scandal though the rival was not named.
Overestimated Fine
A recent statement from ASIC detailed a potential maximum fine of up to A$9.75 billion ($6.68 billion) which Chronican emphasized in his statement.
According to Chronican, most of the mischarged fees had affected just a few hundred customers so «while it's possible to extrapolate and get a very large penalty based on the law, the substance of what's being alleged is materially less».
«The message we have had from AUSTRAC is that we are not going to be measured to a perfect standard,» Chronican added. «We are going to be measured to a standard that we fix things when we find them and that we put the energy and resources into fixing it and we show the right attitude towards resolution of the issues.»
