Australian bank agrees to pay $531 million fine

CANBERRA, Australia: The Commonwealth Bank of Australia says it has agreed to pay a 700 million Australian dollar ($531 million) fine for failing to comply with measures to prevent money laundering and terrorism financing.
Australia’s largest bank said on Monday it had negotiated the fine with the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Center, the government’s financial intelligence agency better known as AUSTRAC, to resolve a civil Federal Court case that began in August. The agreement is subject to court approval.
The bank admitted that it was late in reporting more than 53,500 suspicious transactions exceeding AU$10,000 ($7,581) between 2012 and 2015. Each offense was punishable by a fine of up to AU$21 million ($16 million).
The bank blamed a single software error in its deposit-taking automated teller machines.