Financial Institutions

Advising and acting for various excess layer professional indemnity insurers of the CBA, in relation to the coverage claim arising from the Bank’s Open Advice Review Program, being a publicly launched review and remediation program for customers adversely affected by alleged deficient financial planning advice provided by CBA’s financial planning businesses

Advising and acting for various Reinsurers of NAB and its captive insurer, Nautilus Pte Ltd, in relation to a major remediation program undertaken by NAB in the UK concerning interest rate hedging products, alleged to have been mis-sold to UK borrowers in the wake of the global financial crisis

Advising and acting for the primary layer professional indemnity insurers of CBA in relation to the CBA’s coverage claim arising from the recent civil penalties claim against the Bank for contravention of the Anti-Money Laundering/Counter Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (Cth). This claim was brought against CBA by the regulator, AUSTRAC, for some 56,000 admitted contraventions of the Act. The claim was the subject of the largest ever civil penalties judgment in Australian legal history, when Yates J in the Federal Court in July 2018 imposed on CBA a civil penalty of $700 million

Advising and acting for insurers in connection with the ‘Get Your Super Back Class Action’, claims made against Colonial and Avanteos as superannuation trustees in respect of the provision of cash or fixed interest investment products to superannuation fund members at less than market rates

Advising and acting for insurers in connection with the ‘ADA Class Action’, claims made against Colonial as superannuation trustee in respect of the alleged delay in the transfer of Accrued Default Amounts of Group Members’ superannuation into MySuper products

Advising and acting for insurers in connection with the ‘Grandfathered Commissions Claim’, claims against Colonial in respect of the alleged charging of fees to Group Members’ superannuation accounts in order to continue to pay trailing commissions to financial advisers in contravention of FOFA reforms

Advising and acting for insurers in connection with the ‘Mallia Class Action’, claims against Colonial in respect of the alleged arrangement for FirstChoice Fund members to be provided with life and income protection insurance at excessive premiums

Advising and acting for insurers in connection with the ‘Count Financial Class Action’, claims against Count Financial arising from the receipt of commissions and bonuses paid to Count Financial authorised representatives in contravention of FOFA reforms

Advising and acting for insurers in connection with the class action against Commonwealth Financial Planning Ltd, Financial Wisdom Limited and CommInsure in respect of the sale of life insurance products by CommInsure at substantially higher premiums than life insurance products offered by competitors

Advising and acting for insurers of CBA, Westpac, ANZ and NAB, in the civil penalty proceedings brought against them by ASIC, for alleged manipulation by those banks of the BBSW (Bank Bill Swap Rate)

Advising and acting for the above-mentioned insurers in the USA Class Action Claim of Dennis, Sonterra Capital at al against JP Morgan Chase & Co, et al. These were proceedings in the US District Court, District of New York, against a variety of banks (including CBA, Westpac, NAB, ANZ and Macquarie Bank), for alleged manipulation by those banks of the BBSW (Bank Bill Swap Rate)

Coverage advice to insurers on D&O and professional indemnity insurance policies in connection with claims against a major Australian bank allegedly exposed to liabilities associated with the collapse of the Storm Financial investment advisory business