Awaiting judgment in Federal Court class actions by shareholders over its money laundering risk disclosures, the Commonwealth Bank will ask the court to reopen the case to consider the relevance of two recent decisions that found shareholders in other class actions had failed to prove loss.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has handed Queensland investment firm Penta Capital a $53,280 fine for allegedly making false statements on its website, including that it managed $6.9 billion on behalf of retail, wholesale and institutional clients.
Bank of Queensland will pay a $820,000 penalty after its Members Equity was found guilty of criminal charges over misleading representations, with a judge finding the defunct direct bank was no less responsible because the offending conduct resulted from a systems error.
The Australian Law Reform Commission has recommended extensive reforms to the “confusing maze” that is the Corporations Act, including the creation of a standalone financial services law.
Bendigo and Adelaide Bank has lost its opposition to the registration of three trade marks by pay on demand company BeforePay, with a delegate finding that consumers of banking and financial services were unlikely to be confused by the marks and acted with high “care and attention”.
A judge has found finfluencer Canna Campbell infringed a rival’s ‘financial foreplay’ trade mark by promoting a podcast that contained the phrase, but declined to award damages, finding there was insufficient evidence that she profited from the infringement.
A former Commonwealth Bank manager alleging he was fired by the bank after raising concerns about being overworked says he was told “the job is the job” after a period of stress-related leave.
Four current and former Linchpin Capital directors have been disqualified from heading up companies and hit with a combined $390,000 in penalties, after a judge found they improperly used their positions as directors to line their own pockets.
A class action boutique has filed proceedings against Toyota’s finance arm over car loans that allegedly encouraged dealers to set high interest rates in exchange for large kickbacks.
Sydney-based online broker International Capital Markets has been hit with a class action, and is facing the threat of another representative proceeding by investors who lost money trading risky contracts for difference.