Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has paid a $100,000 fine from the corporate watchdog for an alleged failure to disclose a hike in its 2009 bad debt forecast ahead of a controversial $2 billion capital raising.

CBA on Wednesday said that while it agreed to pay the penalty imposed by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), that payment was not an admission of liability.

Nor could the bank’s agreement to pay be taken as a finding that CBA had contravened the Corporations Act and its continuous disclosure rules.

ASIC had alleged CBA failed to notify the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) after it became aware that its full year loan impairment expense (LIE) to gross loans and acceptances ratio to June 30, 2009 would rise by a material amount.
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The corporate watchdog is to take over supervision of all Australia’s financial markets to ensure their regulatory arrangements remain among the best in the world, federal Treasurer Wayne Swan says.

The move, which is expected to be completed by the second half of next year, was another step towards Australia’s establishment as a financial services hub for the region, he said.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) will perform the supervision of real-time trading on all of Australia’s domestic licensed markets.

It will continue its law enforcement role against misconduct within markets.
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