The record punishment for Australia’s largest bank is the latest blow to the country’s financial sector, which has been rocked by a series of scandals recently. Austrac, a regulator that focuses on financial crime, said Monday that Commonwealth Bank of Australia would pay $700 million Australian dollars ($534 million) to settle a lawsuit after the bank admitted it failed to observe laws to prevent money laundering and financing of terrorism. Between 2012 and 2015, CBA failed to report more than 53,000 suspicious transactions using its ATMs to authorities on time. Drug gangs laundered money by taking advantage of a loophole that allowed for large, anonymous deposits to CBA accounts, Austrac said.
— source money.cnn.com June 4, 2018