Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s strong hint over Westpac leadership

Westpac will slash executive bonuses and pour tens of ­millions of dollars into ­charities as it struggles to contain the fallout from claims it breached anti-money-laundering laws 23 million times.

Change may be coming at Westpac in wake of claims they have breached anti-money laundering laws 23 million times. Picture: Hollie Adams/The Australian

Westpac will slash executive bonuses, call in outside ­experts and pour tens of ­millions of dollars into ­charities working to save children from sexual exploitation as it struggles to contain the fallout from claims it breached anti-money-laundering laws 23 million times.

Chairman Lindsay Maxsted has repeated his apologies for Westpac’s failure, and introduced some immediate fixes as the company braces for fines likely to be in the billions of dollars. The bank immediately shut down its LitePay facility, the platform that Australian paedophiles likely used to pay for live streams of children in the Philippines being sexually abused.

The moves came hours after Treasurer Josh Frydenberg strongly hinted he didn’t think the bank’s leadership would survive the scandal, saying there were “hard conversations’’ to be had before the annual general meeting on December 12.

Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg given a hint he doesn’t think Westpac’s board and leadership will survive after the bank was accused of millions of breaches. Picture: AAP Image/Steven Saphore.

“We are determined to urgently fix these issues and lift our standards to ensure our anti-money-laundering and other financial crime processes are industry-leading,’’ Mr Maxsted told the ASX.

Mr Maxsted and chief executive Brian Hartzer released a plan to respond to the crisis, which has wiped tens of millions of dollars from the bank’s bottom line since AUSTRAC hit it with court action on Wednesday.

Mr Maxsted said the board had decided that “either all or part of’’ the 2019 bonuses for executives and some general managers would be subjected to an “assessment of accountability”.

An independent expert will provide oversight as the bank seeks to build better processes to ensure it abides by its obligations to report foreign transactions to AUSTRAC.

Westpac CEO Brian Hartzer. Picture: AAP Image/Lukas Coch.

Westpac chairman Lindsay Maxsted. Stuart McEvoy/The Australian.

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The bank has also introduced new filters to better detect suspicious transactions.

It also began reviewing past payments to suspicious destinations in the Philippines.

It promised to pay $18 million over three years to fund the International Justice Mission to tackle online sexual exploitation of children.

The bank will also pay ­another $6 million to match the Australian government’s funding of the SaferKidsPH program protecting vulnerable children in the Philippines from online sexual abuse.

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