Westpac slapped with whopping $26m fine
The court said Westpac’s failures left vulnerable borrowers waiting weeks past legal deadlines and caused adverse credit records and debt sales.
- On Tuesday, Federal Court Justice Timothy McEvoy fined Westpac $26 million for failing to respond to more than 200 hardship requests between 2017 and 2023, finding the bank's conduct 'grossly negligent' despite determining breaches were not deliberate.
- A deficiency in Westpac's online hardship system resulted in 229 customers not receiving required responses within the legally mandated 21 days, leaving vulnerable people seeking help for domestic abuse, illness, job loss, and loan repayment struggles without timely assistance.
- Westpac's failures compounded customer harm through wrongful credit file recordings and debt sales to third-party collectors, yet Justice McEvoy rejected the bank's $10 million penalty proposal as 'little more than derisory' and 'wholly inappropriate.'
- ASIC Deputy Chair Sarah Court said Westpac 'failed the very customers who needed help when they needed it most,' with the penalty serving as a stark warning to the entire banking sector to improve customer service operations.
- Westpac is the second major Australian bank penalized recently for hardship compliance failures, following ANZ's $40 million fine and NAB's $15.5 million penalty in August 2025, reflecting ASIC's aggressive regulatory crackdown against lenders failing to support vulnerable borrowers.
15 Articles
15 Articles
'Grossly negligent': Westpac cops $26 million penalty
Westpac has been fined $26 million for grossly negligent conduct after failing to respond to customers in financial hardship. Federal Court Judge Tim McEvoy on Tuesday found that while the bank’s conduct was not deliberate, it occurred over a relatively lengthy period, from 2017 to 2023. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission pursued Westpac in 2023 after it was found the bank had failed to respond to more than 200 online hardship …
Westpac ordered to pay $26 million over hardship failures
Westpac Banking Corporation has been ordered by the Federal Court to pay $26 million in civil penalties after failing to respond to customers facing financial hardship within the time required by law. The penalty follows findings that Westpac failed to respond to more than 200 online hardship requests over nearly six years, from 2017 to 2023. The requests came from customers of Westpac and its subsidiaries St George Bank, Bank SA and Bank of Mel…
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