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Big 4 bank charged with hawking offences
Australia’s largest bank is set to face charges for breaches of the Corporations Act.
Big 4 bank charged with hawking offences
Australia’s largest bank is set to face charges for breaches of the Corporations Act.
The Colonial Mutual Life Insurance Society, trading as CommInsure, has today been charged by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions with 87 counts of offering to sell insurance products in the course of non-compliant unsolicited telephone calls.
CommInsure faces a criminal penalty and a maximum fine of $1,848,750 – equating to up to $21,250 for each charge it is found guilty of.
ASIC has alleged that between October and December 2014, CommInsure, through its agent, telemarketing firm Aegon Insights Australia Pty Ltd, unlawfully sold life insurance policies known as Simple Life over the phone.
CommInsure provided customer contact details to Aegon from CBA’s existing customer database.
In court, the corporate watchdog will allege that the calls to CBA customers were unsolicited, and that CommIssure did not comply with all of the hawking exception in section 992A(3) of the Corporations Act.
Acknowledging the charges, CBA released a statement to shareholders by way of the sharemarket, stating that “CBA and CommInsure are considering the matter and CBA does not intend to comment further at this time”.
The action follows scrutiny of CommInsure practices during the Hayne royal commission, where it was accused of using outdated medical definitions to ignore heart attack and breast cancer insurance claims.
Despite offloading its life insurance arm to AIA group back in in 2017, Commonwealth Bank remains liable for any legal issues under the period in question.
The matter has been listed for the first mention on 19 November 2019 at the Downing Centre Local Court in Sydney.
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