Case of the financial crimes by Westpac

Case of the financial crimes by Westpac
Relevant Facts
Westpac holds the status of being the second biggest bank in Australia. It has been accused of
committing serious financial crimes of violating rules. One of the major charges was
associated with the fund transfer of $11 billion without proper record keeping and financial
reporting, it was believed that intention behind the creation of this dark spot was deliberated
to promote the acts of money laundering and tax evasion.
The reports of government agency Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre
(AUSTRAC), suggested that Westpac failed in maintaining the records in accordance with
the norms set by globally accepted reporting system which is SWIFT. When an agency
taking care of money laundering, organized crime, tax evasion, welfare fraud and terrorism,
makes such a claim, the gravity of offense increase multiple folds.
The SWIFT system has an active history since 2009 when it was constituted with an
intention to monitor global money laundering; this system has a high utility in the majority of
high-value cross border transactions around the world. As a protocol, this system ensures to
maintain the records of the sender, receiver and the lifecycle of the money which is involved
in the case.
The version of Westpac suggests that the SWIFT payment system is inefficient for small
payments when a bank is handling large volume low-value transactions. In order to bridge the
gap, they launched their own platform under the flagship name of LitePay for small transfers
of up to $3,000. Another platform under the name Australasian Cash Management (ACM)
was also set up for payments of up to $100 million.