Westpac's future now awaiting advice
In a coincidental turn of events, another case being run by ASIC against a major bank in the Federal Court is running down, just as the case against CBA gets more interesting. A hearing in Sydney in the Federal Court is likely to draw to a conclusion of sorts in the next month or two. The regulator and the regulated are in court again, this time over Westpac's "super activation campaign", where the bank contacted its existing BT super customers offering to roll over their super from other accounts.ASIC alleges the campaign amounted to giving personal financial product advice in breach of the Future of Financial Advice laws, and many BT customers lost the opportunity to receive proper financial advice about insurance, super fees and performance as a result.Westpac denies this, saying there was "nothing intrinsically wrong" with trying to get people to consolidate their super and the obligations under the Future of Financial Advice laws did not apply because it was not giving any personal advice.The latest series of hearings have just completed, not without incident. As the AFR reports, the corporate regulator has questioned Westpac's decision not to call three of its sales call centre employees as witnesses in court proceedings and said the staff misunderstood their obligations about not giving personal advice to customers.Justice Jacqueline Gleeson is expected to deliver judgment at a later date.