Westpac's new chairman John McFarlane says these things happen in relation to the bank's money laundering scandal.
John McFarlane is surprisingly upbeat and positive about his new challenge as Westpac chairman.
He will be stepping out of a comfortable retirement to help Westpac deal with 23 million breaches of anti-money laundering law and shocking claims of links to paedophile activity in the Philippines."One of the things that's attractive about Westpac is that it's in really good shape apart from some sustained damage on the regulatory side," Mr McFarlane told the ABC, in what some investors might see as an understatement of the crisis confronting Westpac.
But 72-year-old Mr McFarlane — often remembered as the guitar playing, folk singing Scotsman who led ANZ bank between 1997 and 2007 — is careful not to downplay evidence that Westpac allowed its payment platforms to be used by at least one convicted paedophile as late as June 2019."It's the one thing that you don't want to be associated with, and the one thing that you want to make sure is prosecuted and you don't deal with them.
"But I was a little surprised actually that Westpac and the other banks did get caught on these matters because these are matters that have come up elsewhere in the world.Dealings with the regulator Mr McFarlane, who spoke to the ABC alongside outgoing chairman Lindsay Maxsted, said he hoped AUSTRAC would take into account the circumstances of Westpac's inadvertent links with paedophile transactions.
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