Legal
Embattled CBA Served With Class Action Lawsuit

Another lawsuit is filed against the bank.
Commonwealth
Bank of Australia, which is battling against a run of
compliance woes, has been served with a class action lawsuit from
shareholders angry about a sharp drop in the lender’s value in
recent months.
The suit was filed by Phi Finney McDonald on behalf of various
shareholders who acquired an interest in CBA’s shares between 16
June 2014 and 3 August 2017.
According to a report by Reuters, CBA said the proceeding
involved similar claims to the shareholder class action commenced
by Maurice Blackburn against the bank in October 2017, and that
it intended to “vigorously” defend the claim. Maurice Blackburn
had filed a class action against CBA on behalf of shareholders,
accusing the lender of failing to disclose widespread breaches of
anti-money-laundering rules.
CBA has been punished by regulators for AML breaches, a saga that
has seen a number of high-profile executives leave. Late last
year, the Australian government set up a Royal Commission to
probe into alleged failings and problems in the financial
services industry, and a number of problems have come to light.
(See
here for an update on developments.)
Over the past five years, CBA’s share price peaked at A$95.80 ($70.32) per share on 20 March, 2015; it closed at A$72.70 yesterday.