We are investigating Westpac Banking Corporation (WBK) (“Westpac” or the “Company”) for potential violations of the federal securities laws.
On November 19, 2019, after market hours, AUSTRAC, Australia’s anti money-laundering (“AML”) and terrorism-financing regulator, filed a civil action in Australian court alleging over 23 million breaches of Australian AML/counter-terrorism financing legislation by Westpac, including a failure to report more than 19.5 million international fund transfers, failure to perform enhanced due diligence on correspondent banks in high-risk jurisdictions, and failure to introduce appropriate detection scenarios related to potential child exploitation risks. On this news, Westpac’s American depositary receipt price fell $1.25 per share, or 7.13%, over the next three trading sessions, closing at $16.67 per share on November 22, 2019.