WBC shocked the market this morning by announcing that it had been fined a staggering $1.3bn by AUSTRAC after its atrocious breaches of money laundering laws revealed last year.
This is the end of a very difficult period for the bank – while it still has to deal with the effects of the pandemic – and it can now put this episode behind it with a new CEO and Chairman at the helm.
The stock has outperformed the broader market today despite the news, and a big fine was being priced into the stock already, so it was always unlikely to be market moving. And to put the fine in context, WBC’s last pre-COVID dividend was worth well over double the quantum of this fine at $0.80 per share so the shock value of the number is bigger than the real impact on WBC’s balance sheet.
