Australia’s Westpac reaches settlement
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Westpac Bank signage is seen in Melbourne, Sunday, 5 May 2019. Westpac is due to deliver in financial half year results tomorrow, Monday 6 May, 2019. (AAP Image/Ellen Smith) NO ARCHIVING
Shares of Australia’s Westpac were down 0.61%, with the lender announcing Thursday it had reached an agreement with financial crime agency AUSTRAC to pay a record 1.3 billion Australian dollar (approx. $920 million) fine.
The settlement came following a lawsuit from AUSTRAC accusing Westpac of enabling millions of payments to people exploiting children. Other major Australian banks such as Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group also saw their stocks decline.
Overnight on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 525.05 points, or 1.9%, to close at 26,763.13. The S&P 500 slipped 2.4% to finish its trading day at 3,236.92 while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 3% to close at 10,632.99.
