Royal Commission questions awareness of AMP's Meller
The Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry has heard that a paragraph was inserted into an independent report delivered to AMP by law firm Clayton Utz suggesting AMP chief executive, Craig Meller had no knowledge of illegal practices.
Senior Counsel assisting the Royal Commission, Michael Hodge questioned AMP’s group executive, advice and New Zealand, Jack Regan about a series of iterations of the Clayton Utz document and asked whether the AMP Board had met to approve changes to the report.
The Clayton Utz report went to the status of AMP’s handling of so-called orphan clients and its buyer of last resort (BOLR) arrangements and the ongoing charging of fees to orphan clients for up to three months.
When Regan confirmed the board’s consideration of the report, Hodge asked why the board would be approving changes to an independent report.
Hodge later questioned the reasons behind the apparent insertion of a paragraph in the report that specific that Meller was “unaware of the practices or their illegality”.
He asked Regan whether Meller’s name had been excised to avoid attention from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).
Under further questioning Regan said that, given the changes, he could not speak to the independence of the report.
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