Banking royal commission: AMP legal counsel Brian Salter angry at losing job

AMP legal counsel Brian Salter has hit back at criticism of his role in the fee-for-no-service scandal.

Brian Salter has hit out at his sacking from AMP. Picture: Hollie Adams

AMP legal counsel Brian Salter has hit back at criticism of his role in the fee-for-no-service scandal that threatens criminal charges for one of the country’s biggest ­financial services companies after he was sacked on a dramatic day in which chairman Catherine Brenner resigned.

Mr Salter, who oversaw 25 drafts of a supposedly independent report handed to the corporate regulator, has told close colleagues that he considers himself to be a whistleblower who has been hung out to dry.

“I have not engaged in any wrongdoing,” he said yesterday, after learning of his sacking through an AMP statement to the Australian Stock Exchange.

Ms Brenner, who was paid $660,000 a year at AMP, said she was “deeply disappointed”. She remains a director at Coca-Cola Amatil and Boral, where she collectively receives more than $430,000 in directors’ fees.

Malcolm Turnbull said Ms Brenner’s resignation served as a warning to directors and executives, while Treasurer Scott Morrison said: “Most Australians won’t be tearing up over this today.”

In a bid to quell an investor outcry, AMP’s directors will take a 25 per cent pay cut for the rest of the year in what the company called an act of “collective governance accountability”.

But the moves did little to lift the AMP share price yesterday, which rose just 3c to hover near six-year lows at $4.04 after a two-week losing streak that had wiped $2 billion from the firm’s value.

As AMP prepares to ­respond by Friday to recommendations that the Hayne royal commission consider criminal charges against it, investors said more needed to be done to clean out the board and improve governance at the 169-year-old business.

The departures followed a Sunday night board meeting called to consider the devastating claims at the royal commission that AMP had misled the corporate regulator more than 20 times, including in the “independent” ­report prepared by law firm Clayton Utz.

AMP defended Ms Brenner and other directors, saying they were “unaware” of many changes made to a ­report by Clayton Utz on problems in AMP’s advice business that was sent to the Australian ­Securities & Investments Commission.

“The board, including the former chairman, were unaware of and disappointed about the number of drafts and the extent of the group general counsel’s inter­action with Clayton Utz during the preparation of the report,” AMP said in a statement.

The statement said Mr Salter would forgo deferred bonus payments after the royal commission heard there were 700 emails ­between AMP and Clayton Utz and 25 drafts of the report.

Mr Salter, who was sent on leave 10 days ago, has made it clear to those close to him the Clayton Utz ­report was not well understood.

They say his disappointment is based on the fact that it was Mr Salter who brought in Clayton Utz to investigate unlawful conduct in the company’s financial advice division.

Those close to Mr Salter said he was proud of his record in identifying misconduct at AMP, bringing that to the board’s attention and recommending immediate referral of that misconduct to corporate regulators.

“AMP was entitled to seek legal advice from Clayton Utz and work with Clayton Utz in the preparation of its fee-for-no-service ­report,” he said yesterday.

The sacking followed advice from Philip Crutchfield QC, ­barrister ­Tamieka Spencer Bruce, and Tim Bednall of law firm King & Wood Mallesons.

It followed the departure two weeks ago of chief executive Craig Meller whose retirement was brought forward.

Tensions over the Clayton Utz report were heightened on Friday when counsel assisting the royal commission, Rowena Orr, said it would be open to retired judge Kenneth Hayne to find AMP had breached criminal provisions of the Corporations Act by misleading ASIC over the practice of charging fees for no service.

Clayton Utz said last week that its report and its independence were not compromised and that the report was designed to be independent of the management of the advice business but under Mr Salter and the board’s “instruction”.

Investors said yesterday that the possibility of criminal charges and recommendations to separate creating ­financial products and giving advice posed a threat to AMP’s business and needed to be addressed ­quickly.

Insurance industry veteran Mike Wilkins has been elevated from director to acting chief executive and now executive chairman, and promised yesterday to accelerate the hunt for a new chief executive and director.

“Appropriate steps are being taken to address the issues raised, and remediating our customers is being given utmost priority,” he said.