Senator John Williams Responds to CBA Scandal
Tuesday 4 November 2014 @ 12.20 p.m. | Legal Research
Senator John Williams is on a mission to shake up the banking industry in light of recent scandals involving the Commonwealth Bank. The Nationals senator has called for a royal commission on white collar crime as shockwaves from the debacle spread to other banks. Further to this, Williams is pushing changes through the federal cabinet that would see creditors with broader powers to sack dodgy liquidators.
Royal Commission on White Collar Crime
The Senator has called for a royal commission into the financial industry that would see areas including the banks, Ponzi schemes, and liquidators under the scope. Williams expressed his sickness for seeing hard-working Australians or retirees having money they worked all their lives for lost due to widespread white collar crime. He insists that widening the scope of the royal commission to include Macquarie Group, CBA, ANZ and phoenix companies. As it stands, the Finance Minister Mathias Cormann is hesitant about the commission into the CBA scandal but acknowledges it as a ‘nuclear option’ in the event that the new compensation scheme unveiled by chief executive Ian Narev should fail to perform as promised.
Resulting from the Senate Committee report from last week, financial institutions such as the Macquarie Group have scrambled to respond to calls that its financial planning division should be subjected to intensive scrutiny by the regulator. The Senate committee said it was ''concerned with Macquarie's failure to report and particularly the breakdown in its compliance regime''. It is believed Macquarie has put together a team to re-examine client files.
Creditor’s Power to Sack Liquidators
Williams is also proposing legislation to deal with the alleged misconduct concerning registered liquidators in 2011. The proposed measures include an increased power for creditors to sack liquidators through a creditor’s resolution, the power to suspend or ban a liquidator and the placing of onus on insurance companies to notify ASIC if a liquidator’s professional indemnity insurance has expired. Williams further proposes a liquidator licencing price increase that would see liquidators paying thousands of dollars a year.
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