The latest compliance issues in wealth management across Asia-Pacific.

Australia
Australian units of Citigroup and Deutsche Bank appeared in a Sydney court last week accused of cartel-like conduct over a A$3 billion ($2.1 billion) stock issue, a case described by Reuters as a “landmark case being watched around the world”.

Australian authorities filed criminal charges in June against the two subsidiaries as well as Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, and six senior bankers over the sale of ANZ shares in 2015, and subsequent trading by the underwriters, the report said.

The banks are accused of creating a criminal cartel to either “directly or indirectly” restrict the supply of ANZ shares or maintain the price of ANZ shares. The banks deny wrongdoing. 

JP Morgan, which underwrote the capital raising along with Citigroup and Deutsche Bank, has not been charged and has not commented on the case.

The newswire’s report said that charges have also been brought against six executives - ANZ former treasurer, Rick Moscati; Citi former Australia head, Stephen Roberts; Citi’s current Australia head of capital markets, John McLean; Citi’s London-based head of foreign exchange trading, Itay Tuchman; Deutsche’s former Australia chief, Michael Ormaechea; and Deutsche’s former Australia capital markets head, Michael Richardson.

The case was adjourned until 5 February.

The case comes on top of a raft of wrongdoings and problems exposed in Australian banks and financial services firms in recent years. To see a summary of developments in those cases, and other compliance matters, see this summary.