Small business ombudsman to re-investigate CBA takeover of Bankwest
(7 June 2017 – Australia) The small business ombudsman, Kate Carnell has launched an inquiry into how Bankwest business customers were handled amid the bank’s takeover by Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA).
On-going complaints of forced foreclosures from around 2000 small business customers since the 2008 takeover have instigated the new investigation by Carnell.
The inquiry will examine accusations that CBA, seeking to improve the health of its overall loan book, targeted borrowings from particular parts of the country or from particular industries.
Although there have been previous investigations into the matter – including from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) in 2016 – Carnell said the latest would differ in scope.
“ASIC has looked at a number of the cases of CommBank-Bankwest in the past, but they have looked at them separately,” she said.
“What we are looking at is to determine whether there are systemic behaviours in that space and what the reasons might be for that.”
Carnell said by pulling together a number of cases it was hoped the report would be able to pinpoint systemic issues that previous investigations might have missed.
The report is expected to go to ASIC within the next two months.
Subscribe