(Reuters) - Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) <CBA.AX> said on Thursday the Federal Court of Australia has referred civil penalty proceedings initiated by AUSTRAC against the bank for mediation at the request of both the parties.
CBA said in a statement the orders from the court advised mediation between the bank and the anti money-laundering regulator to occur by May 25.
"The orders also require that AUSTRAC file and serve any reply to CBA's amended defence by 6 April 2018 and set a timetable for evidence in the proceedings in the event that mediation is unsuccessful," Australia's biggest bank by market value said. The court order is in relation to civil legal proceedings initiated by the regulator against the CBA last year for breaches of money-laundering and counter-terrorism financing rules.
Most of the over 53,800 claims made by AUSTRAC involve alleged late filing of transaction reports, which the bank says were the result of a single systems-related error. CBA eventually admitted to some allegations formally.
Late last month, CBA denied most of the 100 additional claims to the initial tally made against it by the financial intelligence agency.
(Reporting By Rushil Dutta in Bengaluru; Editing by Vyas Mohan and Sunil Nair)
