An internal report outlining compliance failures by Australia-based financial institution Westpac that led to 23 million breaches of the country’s money laundering and terrorism financing laws concluded “a mix of technology and human error” were to blame.
Westpac’s report, issued Thursday, said the company found three main problem areas in its attempts to comply with Australia’s anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorism financing (CTF) laws: “Some areas of AML/CTF risk were not sufficiently understood within Westpac; there were unclear end-to-end accountabilities for managing AML/CTF compliance; and there was a lack of sufficient AML/CTF expertise and resourcing.”
