After hearing the final of six cases filed against it by the country's corporate watchdog, an Australian court ordered Westpac Banking Corp to pay A$113 million ($82.92 million) in fines for several compliance failings across its businesses.

The Federal Court fined Westpac. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) announced that it had fined A$40 million in one of six cases involving the billing of advising fees to over 11,800 deceased customers. It was the largest fine imposed in any of the six cases.

Over several years, the lender's compliance failings throughout its banking, superannuation, wealth management, and insurance businesses are the subject of ASIC's November legal actions.

Australia's financial sector has been under severe scrutiny since a Royal Commission inquiry revealed numerous failings across the industry in 2018, with charging the dead being one of the most egregious and destructive disclosures.

"Over the course of 13 years, more than 70,000 customers have been affected by these failures, either by being incorrectly charged or given the wrong information," ASIC Deputy Chair Sarah Court said.

Westpac stated that it accepted the court hearings for all six civil penalty procedures initiated by ASIC and the previously revealed penalty amount.

"These penalties have been substantially provisioned (together with anticipated legal costs) in Westpac's full-year 2021 results," the bank stated.

On May 9, Westpac is slated to release its second-quarter earnings.