What will ASIC make of Clayton Utz links in the bank royal commission

ASIC’s new chairman may be a little shell-shocked by all the connections the law firm has with subjects in the banking royal commission.

AMP’s Brian Salter. Pic: Hollie Adams

When the proverbial hits the fan at a company, it’s always good to know that your lawyer, holder of many of your strategic secrets, is right there with you in the trenches.

In AMP’s case, that would be Clayton Utz. Unfortunately for AMP, Clayton Utz looks to be back-peddling from the trenches. And maybe the folk at AMP deserve it.

At issue is the so-called independent report that was sent to regulator ASIC and produced by Clayton Utz partner Nick Mavrakis. Remember that name. We know from the royal commission that the report went through a 25 drafts, with intervention from AMP’s internal counsel Brian Salter and the AMP board.

Salter, who, by the way spent almost 20 years at Clayton Utz, most recently as the banking partner, has now been sent on leave.

The Australian’s Margin Call column yesterday revealed that Salter was actually best man at former ASIC chairman Greg Medcraft’s wedding, before observing “it sure is cosy in financial services land”.

Clayton Utz then clarified that the so-called independent Mavrakis report was not an independent report from Clayton Utz for the regulator; indeed, it was commissioned by the AMP board, its client, and only independent of AMP management.

As such, presumably the report could be altered in any way as agreed between client and adviser.

Clayton Utz executive partner Rob Cutler stated: “The terms of engagement stipulated the investigation was to be undertaken independent of management of the advice business being reviewed and under the instruction of the AMP board and its general counsel.

“Clayton Utz notes AMP may address the commission further and it would be inappropriate for us to make any further comment at this time.”

This leaves AMP vulnerable. What if we discover that there is correspondence from AMP to ASIC that described the report as “independent”?

But matters get even cosier, involving the Commonwealth Bank and links to Clayton Utz and AMP.

David Cohen is the current head of risk at the CBA, having recently moved from CBA’s general counsel. And he was AMP’s general counsel just before Brian Salter. And who has the CBA employed to assist the bank with the royal commission? Why, Clayton Utz of course!

We asked CBA directly whether Nick Mavrakis, the author of the AMP “independent report”, was acting for the bank in the royal commission. The bank confirmed that Clayton Utz was indeed acting for the bank, but declined to talk about specific individuals.

And if you head to Nick Mavrakis’ Clayton Utz partner page, you’ll find that Mr Mavrakis has acted for CBA and Colonial First State in ASIC investigations, including Storm Financial and class actions.

I wonder what the new chairman of ASIC James Shipton would make of all this. He’d be excused for being a little shell-shocked.

Ticky Fullerton hosts Ticky weekdays on Sky News Business at 5.30pm.