Commbank to plead guilty to 30 charges

COMMONWEALTH Bank will plead guilty to the 30 criminal charges brought against it by the corporate cop over its mis-selling of junk add-on insurance.

Australia’s largest lender is now bracing for a fine of up to $51m over the misconduct.

The charges, filed in Federal Court on Thursday, relate to the bank’s promotion and sale of useless CreditCard Plus and Loan Protection policies between 2011 and 2015.

Over the four-year period, CBA is alleged to have made false or misleading representations to customers, spruiking the need for the add-on insurance policies and selling them to people who could not avail of their benefits.

In a statement to the market, the bank acknowledged the proceedings and said it had made “the wrong decision” when, in 2011, it removed qualifying questions about the employment status of customers from its sales scripts.

“Those questions would have disclosed at the point of sale whether the customer would be eligible for certain benefits under those policies,” CBA said.