Westpac Banking Corp <WBC.AX> said on Friday a class-action lawsuit was filed by certain shareholders who sought to recover damages relating to disclosure issues with its financial crime monitoring and a recent money-laundering scandal.
Australia's second largest lender said the shareholders had bought their stake in the firm during a six-year period between Dec. 16, 2013 and Nov. 19 last year.
Australian financial crime watchdog AUSTRAC sued Westpac in November last year, accusing it of 23 million breaches of anti-money laundering laws and facilitating payments between known child abusers.
Local law firm Johnson Winter & Slattery filed the lawsuit on behalf of purchasers of Westpac shares. The lender said the claim did not specify the amount of damages sought.
The lender was hit by a similar lawsuit in December by law firm Phi Finney McDonald.
(Reporting by Niyati Shetty in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)
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