Commonwealth Bank of Australia says it is buying the remaining 20 per cent stake of Aussie Homes Loans from founder John Symond.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia says it is buying the remaining 20 per cent stake of Aussie Homes Loans from founder John Symond.
The bank said today Mr Symond exercised his put option last week, as per the deal made when the bank upped its stake in Aussie from 33 per cent to 80 per cent in 2012.
CBA valued the lender at about $272 million in its 2016 annual report, meaning the last 20 per cent stake would be worth about $68 million.
The bank will pay Mr Symond, who launched Aussie in 1992 and remains its executive chairman, in CBA shares, and expects the acquisition to be completed later in August month.
The news came as chief executive Ian Narev admitted the bank had made mistakes realted to its alleged breaches of anti-money laundering laws.
He is among the bank's executives to have their 2017 bonuses slashed in response to allegations by regulator AUSTRAC - the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre - that CBA failed to provide the necessary on-time reports for more than 53,500 transactions.
"It's been a tough time at the Commonwealth Bank since the AUSTRAC proceedings were filed and we're taking them very seriously," Mr Narev said today.
"We know that we've made mistakes; we have fixed a lot of those mistakes and we will continue to look to make our business better and better."
AUSTRAC alleges CBA failed to provide on-time reports for more than 53,506 cash transactions of $10,000 or more through its Intelligent Deposit Machines between November 2012 and September 2015.
CBA, which has already blamed a coding error, on Wednesday said a sub-committee of four directors will oversee the bank's response to the civil proceedings launched by AUSTRAC in Federal Court.
The bank's chairman, Catherine Livingstone, said any errors would have been unintentional.
"The board notes that it has no reason to believe that the allegations arose from deliberate or unethical behaviour, or any commercial motive," she said.
CBA said that, since it discovered and fixed the error in 2015, it has changed oversight of financial crimes compliance, recruited more than 50 specialists and upgraded monitoring.
"Commonwealth Bank takes its legal and regulatory obligations very seriously, including its role in working with AUSTRAC, other agencies and law enforcement bodies, to fight crime," Ms Livingstone said.
"It is committed to maintaining a strong, co-operative working relationship with AUSTRAC."
CBA on Tuesday slashed to zero short-term bonuses for Mr Narev and his executives in response to the allegations.
"The board's actions reflect the focus we are taking on improving the trust among people, customers, businesses and communities that the bank exists to serve," Ms Livingstone said.
