The corporate regulator has begun legal action against HSBC Australia for allegedly failing to respond swiftly to almost 1000 reports of suspicious activity in customers’ bank accounts, resulting in some losing $90,000 or more to scammers.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission launched the action in the Federal Court on Monday, claiming the Australian subsidiary of the global bank engaged in “widespread and systemic” failures, including taking an average of 145 days to investigate customer referrals of unauthorised account activity.