Commonwealth Bank settles AUSTRAC case for $700m

James Thomson and James Frost

Updated Jun 4, 2018 – 11.44am, first published at 8.48am

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Commonwealth Bank has settled its proceedings with AUSTRAC over anti-money laundering allegations for a cash figure almost double the bank's earliest estimates of $375 million and made further admissions about the bank's inadequate processes.

In a statement released to the ASX this morning Commonwealth Bank said it would pay $702.5 million to settle the matter and agreed to new breaches of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Act (AML-CTF) taking the total number of contraventions to 53,750.

James Thomson is senior Chanticleer columnist based in Melbourne. He was the Companies editor and editor of BRW Magazine.

James Frost writes about banking, funds management and superannuation. Based in Melbourne, James has been reporting on specialist business and finance topics for 15 years.