Ziggy Switkowski and Kerry Schott announced to join Westpac accountability review
Westpac confirms leaders to form part of accountability review panel.
Westpac has confirmed Ziggy Switkowski has been hired by the bank to probe the lender over the child exploitation and money laundering scandal, as it continues the search to round out an oversight panel for its accountability review of financial crimes law breaches.
The bank failed on Friday to name all three members for an independent advisory panel, appointing only Dr Switkowski and energy market expert Kerry Schott.
The third panel member will be announced at a later date, Westpac said in a statement.
Chairman Lindsay Maxsted said Westpac was “determined to deal with shortcomings in our financial crime processes in a comprehensive and durable manner”.
“We look forward to receiving the findings of both Promontory’s and the advisory panel’s reviews. They will be important inputs to our work to raise standards and fix any gaps in Westpac’s financial crime-related processes,” Mr Maxsted said.
Westpac will make the recommendations of the panel’s review public as large investors continue to keep up pressure on the bank to get to bottom of its compliance and governance failings.
Earlier on Friday, The Australian had tipped Dr Switkowski as among the final contenders for the bank’s panel, alongside retired judge Michael Kirby and former regulator Allan Fels, in the wake of the Austrac scandal.
Independent firm Promontory has already been appointed to assess accountability for the bank’s 23 million alleged breaches of the law, by regulator Austrac. The banking and corporate regulators are also conducting separate inquiries into the alleged breaches.
The Austrac scandal claimed the job of Westpac chief executive Brian Hartzer last month and has brought forward the retirement of Mr Maxsted.
Among the alleged law breaches are the facilitation of international payments linked to sexual child exploitation in South East Asia and the Philippines.
Dr Switkowski – chairman of NBN and a director of Tabcorp – is the former chair of Suncorp, and former chief executive of Telstra and Optus Communications. He is currently chancellor of RMIT University.
Dr Switkowski was also responsible for a review of nuclear power for the Howard government in 2006 and has served as a former non-executive director on the boards of Healthscope, Oil Search, Lynas and Amcor.
Dr Schott is chair of the Energy Security Board, a director of NBN and a member of the advisory board for City and South East Light Rail. She was formerly managing director of Sydney Water until 2011 and prior to that spent 15 years as an investment banker at Deutsche Bank and Bankers Trust.
Mr Kirby retired as a Justice of the High Court in 2009 and prior to that had stints as president of the NSW Court of Appeal and as a Federal Court judge.
Mr Fels served as inaugural chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission until 2003.
The accountability review comes as Westpac searches for a new CEO and chairman, with Mr Maxsted set to leave the bank in the first half of 2020. Westpac is expected to settle the matter with Austrac for a penalty in the order of $1bn next year, after Commonwealth Bank in 2018 paid what was then a record fine of $700m to smooth over its own smaller set of anti-money laundering breaches.
More Coverage
Read related topics:Westpac
Join the conversation
Why global money is rethinking ‘anything but China’ trade
Big investors are preparing to play in China again, but the wild swings are not for the faint hearted.
Read more
Country’s biggest super fund to cop $27m fine
Superannuation members with multiple accounts tend to be the least well off and work multiple jobs, a court has heard as the country’s biggest superannuation scheme is set to pay a record fine over its alleged conduct.
Read more