Westpac finalises breaches review panel, adding Colin Carter
Lendlease director and former consultant Colin Carter joins panel overseeing a review of alleged financial crimes breaches.
Westpac has appointed Lendlease director and former consultant Colin Carter to an advisory panel overseeing a review of millions of financial crimes breaches, rounding out three high-profile appointments.
Mr Carter joins independent panel members NBN chairman Ziggy Switkowski and energy market expert Kerry Schott to make recommendations to Westpac on board risk governance and accountability. The panel’s formation is part of Westpac’s response to damning legal action against it launched in November by regulator Austrac, alleging 23 million breaches of the law.
It is “an important part of Westpac’s work to raise standards and fix any gaps” the bank said of the panel in an ASX statement on Thursday.
Westpac is working on a statement of agreed facts with Austrac over the alleged breaches, which include facilitating payments linked to child exploitation. Analysts estimate the bank may cop a fine of $700m to $1.25bn.
The Australian last week revealed Westpac’s lawyers King & Wood Mallesons and Allens had joined the bank’s human resources team to start on a deep dive into accountability, including trawling through 10 years of staff emails.
Mr Carter – who is also president of the Geelong Football Club - has more than 30 years’ experience in management consulting, advising on organisational strategy and governance issues.
He is one of the founding partners of The Boston Consulting Group in Australia and remains an adviser to the company, despite retiring as a senior partner in 2001.
Westpac’s statement cited Mr Carter’s “wide industry knowledge of corporate governance issues” as a reason for his appointment.
He joined corporate stalwart David Crawford in 2011 to assist Cricket Australia in a sweeping governance review.
Westpac said Mr Carter had carried out board performance reviews for a number of companies and co-authored a book on boards, Back to the Drawing Board, published by Harvard Business School Press.
Mr Carter is also a former director of Wesfarmers, SEEK and Origin Energy.
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