Westpac whistleblower ‘bullied’ after raising suspected criminal activity complaints at RAMS

A Westpac whistleblower has claimed she was repeatedly bullied, ignored and deemed a “troublemaker” after making more than a dozen internal complaints about suspected fraud and other criminal activity at the bank’s RAMS Home Loans mortgage broking subsidiary.

Samantha Aitken launched Federal Court proceedings against Westpac, alleging she was “deprecated, disparaged and stigmatised” for raising concerns about RAMS franchises and was prevented from raising her concerns with the banking and corporate regulators.

A Westpac whistleblower claims she raised more than a dozen complaints internally about suspected fraud and criminal activity at mortgage broking subsidiary RAMS. Credit: Oscar Colman

In a statement of claim filed with the court, the former head of mortgages business controls and monitoring says she first became aware of suspected fraud and other criminal activities at the RAMS Fairfield branch in June 2022 and shortly after identified a number of other franchisees that had potentially engaged in similar conduct.

Aitken complained to then-head of RAMS Jake Bromwich, who is now chief executive at Beyond Bank, and recommended shutting down the Fairfield franchise, and the matter escalated. She alleged Bromwich was aware of concerns at that branch from 2021 and had issued warning letters, but he had not taken any meaningful steps to address them.

“Between June and September 2022, Mr Bromwich repeatedly deprecated, disparaged or stigmatised the applicant by describing her as someone who was killing his business,” the court documents state.

“Between about August and about December 2022, Mr Bromwich subjected the applicant to bullying, in that he … regularly berated the applicant for angering RAMS franchisees ... regularly informed the applicant that complaints being made by RAMS franchisees about increased oversight by the respondent was [sic] all her fault [and] regularly accused the applicant of not being helpful.”

Westpac last month decided to close its RAMS business after the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and Australian Prudential Regulation Authority launched an investigation over allegations it “conducted business with unlicensed persons and [gave] misleading information”.

RAMS franchisees have since launched legal action, claiming the bank improperly terminated their agreements.

Aitken has alleged Westpac’s former consumer and business banking executive Chris de Bruin, who no longer works at Westpac, told her the matter was not significant enough to be disclosed to the board and that he prevented her from disclosing her concerns at a subcommittee meeting in November 2022.

At that time, she claimed she had identified 18 franchises that posed regulatory, reputational and legal risks.

Westpac last month decided to close its RAMS franchise network.

A year later, Aitken had a telephone call with a senior manager who, she claims, told her she would no longer be involved in auditing RAMS’ regulatory compliance.

“The applicant referred to a meeting with ASIC and APRA to be held the following day, where she would be prevented from saying anything about the RAMS concerns, and asked him whether this was appropriate,” the statement of claim alleges.

“[The manager] said that they could seek legal advice or speak to the regulatory affairs team. The applicant asked whether she should copy him to her email to the regulatory affairs team, and [he] responded by again directing the applicant not to put anything in writing.”

Westpac has not yet filed its defence but, in a statement, said it had taken appropriate action in 2022 after the bank identified issues with some RAMS loan applications.

“This action included heightened monitoring of loan applications, investigations into franchisees and the self-reporting of issues to regulators,” a spokesman said.

“The issues raised were acted upon, and Westpac rejects the allegations of breaches of workplace laws. We’ll be defending the case.”

Through a spokesman at Beyond Bank, where Bromwich now works, he said: “As this is a matter before the court between Westpac and its employee, there won’t be any comment.”

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