A judge has dismissed three proceedings by shareholders against the liquidator of failed global financial services firm Babcock & Brown, in a finding that highlights “serious problems” with market-based causation and may have ramifications for securities class actions.
Cash Converters has agreed to pay $42.5 million to settle a class action brought on behalf of consumers that took out personal loans, after reaching a $16.4 million settlement last year in a class action over interest charged on short-term loans.
A judge has signed off on a settlement of a long-running class action against Westpac unit BankSA, and has ruled the law firm that brought the case has an equitable right to unpaid legal costs for investigating the case before it found a funder.
Commonwealth Bank’s wealth management unit Colonial First State has been hit with a second class action in as many days, this one alleging it charged excesssive superannuation fees to fund commissions to financial advisers.
AMP, Asteron and Westpac have been singled out by ASIC for having higher than expected decline rates for total and permanent disability life insurance claims, in a new review by the corporate watchdog that also revealed a “concerningly high” 60 per cent rejection rate for some narrowly defined policies.
The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority will not challenge a Federal Court ruling that dismissed its case against fund manager IOOF as “unpersuasive”, “fundamentally inadequate” and “tenuous in the extreme”.
Commonwealth Bank subsidiary Colonial First State and former director Linda Elkins face a class action alleging the wealth management group breached its superannuation trustee duties by failing to promptly transfer $3.2 billion of default members’ funds to a lower-cost, high-performing MySuper product.
A judge has hit pause on National Australia Bank’s case against Helen Rosamond’s executive services company Human Group over an alleged $42.4 million fraud against the bank, amid an ongoing criminal case against Rosamond.
Corrs Chambers Westgarth has been retained by the AMP Financial Planners Association to weigh a possible class action against the wealth manager over its plan to cut the number of authorised advisers and retreat from a promise to buy back their businesses at a set multiple.
ANZ has rejected allegations by the financial regulator that $35 million in fees charged to customers for periodical payments between accounts was unlawful, saying the regulator’s case extended the scope of false and misleading representation claims.