CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — The Australian government has agreed to create a compensation fund for people who lost money from bad financial advice and to establish rules to help drought-stricken farmers avoid bank foreclosures.
A government-commissioned inquiry into misconduct in Australia’s banking and financial services industry found widespread misbehavior that often went unpunished.
The inquiry’s report was made public on Monday. It referred 24 incidents of misconduct to regulators for further investigation and to consider potential civil or criminal charges against executives and corporations including most major banks.
The government agreed with a report recommendation to establish a fund of last resort for individuals and businessed that have won court judgments against financial service providers over the past decade but have never received the damages owed for their losses.
