The Australian Federal Court dismissed a petition by the country's corporate regulators against Commonwealth Bank of Australia and its pension unit on allegations of improperly collecting commissions, the regulator said.
The Royal Commission inquiry into the country's financial sector from 2017 to 2019 revealed widespread misconduct in the sector, including forcing customers to buy financial products without disclosures for commission, among others.
The dismissal of the petition by the court is a blow to consumer advocates who wanted tougher regulation and absolves CBA of some of the most damaging allegations aired at the inquiry.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission, ASIC, filed a petition against top lender CBA and Colonial First State in June 2020 accusing it of a scheme in which the bank took commission to sell products for its unit from 2013 to 2019, a practice known as conflicted remuneration.
CBA sold the pension product to more than 390,000 of its customers in branches and online, adding more than A $22 million and $14.27 million in fees, the regulator had alleged back in 2020.
The payments made by Colonial to CBA did not constitute any benefits within the definition of conflicted remuneration CBA, according to an emailed response to Reuters acknowledged the judgement, but they refrained from commenting.