The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has launched a bid to stay a shareholder class action brought by boutique law firm Phi Finney McDonald after the firm retreated from a plan to consolidate its case with a competing class action run by rival Maurice Blackburn.
Most of the country’s major financial institutions have still not conducted a systemic review of their fees-for-no-service failures, according to ASIC, which called the delays “unreasonable”.
Legal action brought by the corporate regulator over withheld documents at the centre of an investigation into AMP’s fees for no service conduct has settled, with law firm Clayton Utz producing the evidence on Thursday.
An appeals court has dashed the hopes of three group members of a resolved class action over managed investment schemes operated by agribusiness Great Southern Group who sought more time to appeal approval of the settlement deed, which put them on the hook for repaying their loans to Bendigo and Adelaide Bank.
A judge who hit Pitcher Partners with a $5.6 million damages ruling over an accounting error concealed from corporate client Neville’s Bus Service was wrong to hold that the transport operator’s losses flowing from the error were real, the firm has argued.
The former chief of staff to ex-NAB boss Andrew Thorburn has been arrested and charged for her alleged role in a $40 million fraud against the bank.
Westpac has followed ASIC’s lead, launching a separate appeal to a ruling that it provided financial advice but not personal advice as part of a campaign encouraging customers to roll over external superannuation accounts.
A former managing director at global foreign exchange giant Travelex has filed a lawsuit against his former employer, seeking over $1.3 million in compensation and damages.
KPMG has snagged heavy-hitters from Norton Rose Fulbright, Clayton Utz and Herbert Smith Freehills for its growing legal services team, adding strength to its financial services regulation, technology and telecom transactions, and government offerings.
Two rulings Friday keeping alive the common fund order are a ringing endorsement by the courts of the important role that litigation funders play in class actions, experts say, and have paved the way for more funded post-Hayne consumer litigation against banks and other financial services firms this year.