Analysis of CBA's Money Laundering Scandal and Ethical Implications

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the Common Wealth Bank of Australia (CBA) money laundering scandal, which involved breaches of anti-money laundering (AML) laws. The report details the allegations made by AUSTRAC, the financial regulatory authority, highlighting the bank's failures in reporting suspicious transactions and its involvement in facilitating illegal activities. It examines the ethical issues at play, including violations of utilitarian and deontological ethical theories. The report assesses the impact of the scandal on CBA's public image, its business operations, and the broader society. It also explores the bank's justifications for its actions, the role of company culture and ethics, and the CSR activities undertaken by CBA. The report concludes with recommendations for maintaining ethical standards within organizations and preventing future incidents. The report emphasizes the importance of ethical practices and the consequences of unethical behavior in the financial industry. The report is designed to provide insights into ethical decision-making and the significance of regulatory compliance in the financial sector. This document is contributed by a student to be published on the website Desklib. Desklib is a platform which provides all the necessary AI based study tools for students.

Money laundering scam of Common
Wealth Bank of Australia

Executive Summary
In this report an analysis is done over the scandal done by Common Wealth Bank of Australia
by breaching the Anti-money laundering laws. The bank has to face severe allegations by
AUSTRAC that is financial regulatory authority of Australia. CBA has to give the penalty
because of its unethical and irresponsible behaviour. The analysis will be done over the
impact on public image of the company after accused by the government authorities.
After analyse the case study of CBA, the impact of this scandal over the company and the
public is described. The applications of the ethical theories with respect to the case are
described. The importance of ethical practices is also analysed in this report. In the end,
conclusion is derived on the bases of the study of the case. Some recommendations are made
for the well-being of the business of the companies and for the society by maintain ethical
standards inside the organisations.

Table of Contents
Executive Summary...................................................................................................................1
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Ethical issues recognised in CBA..............................................................................................4
Anti-money laundering laws of Australia..................................................................................5
The ethical theories related to the case......................................................................................6
The impact on the CBA after using unethical practices.............................................................6
The impact on the society and public.........................................................................................7
Justification by CBA for breaching the laws.............................................................................7
The role of company culture and ethics.....................................................................................8
The CSR activities done by CBA...............................................................................................8
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................9
Recommendations......................................................................................................................9
References................................................................................................................................10

Introduction
In this report an analysis will be done over the ethical issues faced by Common Wealth Bank
of Australia related to the breach of anti-money laundering laws in 2018. The violation of
regulations, laws and using unethical practices by CBA is described in the report. The impact
of using unethical practices over the business of the CBA and its public image is also
scrutinised in the end. The focus is also provided over the consequences of using unethical,
immoral and illegal practices for the benefit of business.
Common Wealth Bank of Australia is one of the major banks of the country which is dealing
with financial management and investment management of the clients. The bank is providing
a large variety of financial products including saving accounts, business accounts, home
loans, car loans, debit cards, credit cards, insurance schemes, mutual funds and other
financial services related to the financial management of the clients (Bank, 2020).
CBA is working along with 51,000 employees and around 16.6 million customers across 11
countries including China, UK, Japan, New Zealand and USA (bank, 2020). According to the
financial report of 2017, Bank has total revenue of around 45 billion Australian dollars. The
total asset of bank is around Australian $976 billion which makes it largest Australian
company (Bank, 2020).

Ethical issues recognised in CBA
The major financial intelligence services of federal named ‘AUSTRAC’ (The Australian
transaction report and analysis center) accused the bank related to serious and continuously
failure in explaining doubtful bank accounts, deposits and suspicious transfer of money
through unknown accounts. Normally banks are required to file all the reports of transaction
during ten business days but CBA became failure in filing around 53,500 reports that
included the amount of around $10,000 through its intelligence deposit machines (Eyers,
2020).
The CBA was arguing to AUSTRAC that due to a single coding error in the intelligence
deposit machines, it was unable to file the transactions. It was also admitted by the bank that
around 150 suspicious reports filed late and many of the reports did not filed at all. For a
constant period of three years, bank has failed to monitor a large number of accounts around
778,370 accounts for checking the money laundering which proves that bank is intentionally
involved in money laundering through illegal sources (Eyers, 2020). The bank has admitted
that it has failed to report a large amount in millions of dollars related to suspect money
laundering (DeRoma, 2020).
AUSTRAC detected that the suspicious laundering done by CBA is involved in illegal
proceed of drugs including methamphetamine. The laundered money is used by criminals for
importing and distributing the illegal and banned drugs which are extremely harmful for the
health of the human being. In 2015, two men named ‘Arslan Shaffi’ and ‘Salman Khan’ were
arrested by the police of New South Wales for structured deposits in around 101 CBA’s
branches just under Australian $10,000 for not reporting by the bank to AUSTRAC. After
this case many of the transaction in the accounts of CBA, in between 2012 to 2015 were
found suspicious by AUSTRAC and CBA totally failed to explain the misconducts and
mistakes done by banks. CBA also agreed in violation of norms and agreed to pay the fine of
$700 million for breaches of laws of anti-money laundering and terror financing
(Government, 2020).
The chief executive of AUSTRAC ‘Nicole Rose’ said that these allegations are very serious.
Although the CEO of CBA named ‘Matt Comyn’ agreed that they have done a serious

mistakes and that is why the bank is ready to pay the fine. He said they agreed with the
seriousness of mistakes (Guardian, 2020).
Anti-money laundering laws of Australia
In Australia the Anti-money laundering laws (AML), the suspicious activities are described
as follows:
 Criminal offences done by money laundering at national and other territory levels.
 Legislations related to asset recovery.
The Anti-money laundering and counter terrorism financing Acts 2006 (AML and CTF Acts)
is responsible for detection and prevention of money laundering and terrorism financing
activities. Rules and regulations are associated with the acts which are made to stop the
money laundering that is used for illegal activities like drug supplies and other serious
offences (Guardian, 2020).
The FTR Act 1988 (Financial Transaction Reports Act) applies or imposes guidelines to
dealers of cash and cash transactions that is above $10,000. It verifies the details of the
account holders of the large amount cash transaction to monitor the money-laundering cases
inside the country. It directly reports to AUSTRAC (Government, 2020).
The ethical theories related to the case
The Utilitarian approach of business ethics stated that one should to do any task when it is
related to the rightness and beneficial for all including company, people and society. This
theory is focuses over the wellbeing of society and its people. This approach is analyzed the
decision taking capability of anyone in order to measure the consequences of the action. As
discussed with the case, the CBA violates the norms of anti-money laundering case and it
affects the safety of the society and its people very badly. CBA acts are known as unethical
practices according to the Utilitarian theory of ethics (Gündoğdu, 2018).
The deontology theory of ethics stated that people should fulfill their duties and role with
honesty while doing any job. This theory distinguishes from right and wrong conducts of the
employee and managers while doing any practices related to their job role. This theory
establishes the difference between moral and immoral conducts while fulfilling the duties of

the job role. As discussed with the case, the employee and mangers do not follow the
instructions of AUSTRAC which leads towards the penalties faced by the bank (DM
Wasieleski, 2019).
The impact on the CBA after using unethical practices
Before 2018, the four directors of CBA and CEO named ‘Ian Narev’ resigned from the
designation without telling the any significant reason. The bank has to face humiliation by the
public, investors and customers (Times, 2020). The public image of bank is damaged due to
the involvement in money laundering case and money supply to criminals. Although bank has
announced that all the problems occurred because of the technical error found in the
machines but still bank has to suffer the damage of its public image (Herzog, 2019). Finally,
the bank decided to change its board of directors and train its employees related to maintain
the ethical standard inside the company. CBA involved in many activities related to corporate
and social responsibilities in order to improve its public image (Government, 2020).
The impact on the society and public
The Common Wealth bank of Australia not only suffered from a damaged image but also it
results in the motivation of criminal activities through-out the country. The use of immoral
acts in any organization is very harmful for the future of the company. Sometimes the bad
public image results in the loss of customers and investors. Unfair public image results in the
financial loss for the company by losing the trust of investors (S Connelly, 2017). It badly
affects the business of the company. CBA found guilty for breaching the law of Anti-money
laundering and this activity is related to the illegal supply of money to the criminals and
terrorists which is extremely harmful for the public (DeRoma, 2020).
Justification by CBA for breaching the laws
In the starting, the bank stated that they failed and delayed in reporting the financial
transactions due the error occurred in the machines but later on CBA agreed about their
failures in explaining the details of many accounts and transactions through them a lot of
money is transferred to criminals related to drugs related crimes and other serious offences.
However, the bank admitted to pay the fine but now they are giving training to their
employees in order to have a control over the reporting of transactions and accounts in a

regular manner (Bank, 2020). The CBA agreed that they did not measure the risk associated
with Intelligence deposit machines (IDM’s). CBA reshuffled its board of directors after found
guilty in money laundering case (times, 2020).
The role of company culture and ethics
The culture and values of the organization is highly related to the ethical or unethical
practices inside the organization. Sometimes the companies establish high standards of
ethical codes and conducts for the employees and managers, in that case there is a very few
chances of existing of unethical practices inside the organization (Herlad, 2020). Companies
having high ethical standard always establish a good public image which results in
enhancement of sales and development of the company (Gerasimova, 2020).
As discussed with the case of breaching of laws by Common Wealth Bank of Australia, it is
quite clear that the company did not apply the ethical codes and regulations for its employees
while working. If the CBA would strictly apply the norms of works like complete reporting
of all the transactions and details of the suspicious accounts to the government, this case
would not have happened. That is why it is very essential to maintain the ethical practices and
moral duties inside the organization for protecting the company and the society from illegal
activities (times, 2020).
The CSR activities done by CBA
Common Wealth Bank of Australia is involved in many programs related to the welfare of
the people of the society and environment. It helps the children by educating them with the
financial investment in their education. The company is involved with various charities and
donations for the well-being of the people of the society (Bank, 2020). CBA is also donating
for the victims of bushfire in order to save animal and lives of people which is badly affected
to bushfire. It publishes its Annual Reports and Corporate Responsibility Reports for
maintaining the fair and transparent public image. The CBA also involved in climate control
activities for the preservation of the environment (Bank, 2020).
Conclusion

On the bases of the above analysis of the case of Common Wealth Bank of Australia, it can
be easily concluded that maintenance of ethical standards inside the company is very
essential for protecting the company by any major scams or scandals. CBA not only give the
penalty to the regulatory authorities in a large amount but also it has to suffer because of its
damaged public image due to unethical and immoral conduct of the bank. The application of
ethical theories while working with the Organisations is extremely important for the safety
and welfare of company as well as nation. According to the analysis of the case, the unethical
and immoral acts done by CBA promotes the crime related to very harmful drugs are take
place in the society which is extremely harmful for the future and safety of the country.
Overall using ethical practices is always good for society and companies.
Recommendations
(1) Every company should maintain the transparency in its operations for ensuring the
ethical practices related to the job.
(2) Companies should follow the strict guidelines of the regulatory authorities to avoid
any scandals and problems.
(3) Companies should work on ethical principles and norms in order to maintain a fair
public image.
(4) Companies should admit their mistakes and keep on working for maintain a high level
of ethical practices in their working environment.

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