Australian bank to pay record fine in laundering case

Canberra, June 4 (IANS) Australia's Commonwealth Bank on Monday said it will pay a A$700 million ($530 million) fine for breaching anti-money laundering and counter-terror financing laws.

The scandal relates to 53,000 suspect transactions that the bank did not immediately report to authorities, reports the BBC.

Last year, Australia's financial intelligence agency accused the country's largest lender of "serious and systemic" law breaches.

If a court approves the fine, it will be the largest civil penalty in Australian corporate history.

The bank said it would also cover A$2.5 million in legal fees accrued by investigators.

"While not deliberate, we fully appreciate the seriousness of the mistakes we made," Chief Executive Matt Comyn said on Monday.

Australia's scandal-plagued financial sector is at the centre of a national inquiry into misconduct, the BBC reported.

In December, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull established a royal commission inquiry to investigate the scale of wrongdoing.

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