ASIC to appeal ruling on Westpac

The corporate regulator is to appeal part of a Federal Court judgment against it.

The corporate regulator will appeal part of a Federal Court judgment against it, as it continues to press that Westpac breached the law by giving customers advice to urge them to move their superannuation to its unit BT ­Financial.

In a directions hearing in Sydney yesterday, the Australian ­Securities & Investments Commission signalled it would appeal against the December judgment.

In that judgment, judge Jacqueline Gleeson said a phone campaign, in which customers were urged to move their superannuation into accounts at Westpac subsidiary BT, breached the bank’s overarching obligation to provide financial services “efficiently, honestly and fairly”.

However, she did not find that any of the 15 case studies advanced by ASIC reflected personal advice to customers, which would have resulted in further breaches of the law.

The ruling said the advice given did not amount to personal ­advice as call centre staff did not take the circumstances of each customer into account when ­trying to get them to transfer their super.

ASIC was reviewing the case before deciding to appeal.

Westpac escaped without a ­financial penalty because, in a legislative anomaly ASIC has urged the government to fix, failing to provide financial services efficiently, honestly and fairly ­attracts no fine even though it is a breach of the Corporations Act.

A renewed court battle comes after Monday’s public release of the Hayne royal commission’s historic report, which mentioned Westpac’s damaged relationship with the corporate regulator.

Commissioner Kenneth Hayne put the onus on Westpac’s chief executive, Brian Hartzer, to mend the bridge between the bank and ASIC.

“While I do not doubt Mr Hartzer, CEO of Westpac, when he says that Westpac has sought to ‘reset’ its relationship with ASIC, only time will tell whether that proves to be right,” Mr Hayne said.