Sectors: fund Management

Governance Financial Services fund Management Class Action Collective Redress Group Litigation

BT Superannuation Funds

The Case

Therium is funding a class action on behalf of members of various superannuation funds of which BT Funds Management Limited (BT), a subsidiary of Westpac Banking Corporation Ltd, is the Trustee. This case relates to members who chose to invest their superannuation funds in certain cash products offered by BT to its superannuation fund members.

The case alleges that BT has breached its statutory and equitable duties to act in the best interests of their members, and not to prefer the interests of their related parties over the interests of their members, by allowing a related party (Westpac Life) to charge uncommercial fees to its members relating to their investment in BT cash products.

Why It’s Significant

The case has received significant media attention, given BT is a subsidiary of one of Australia’s largest banks. It is one of a number of class actions brought in the wake of the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking and Financial Services Sectors in 2018-19.

Therium’s Solution

Without Therium’s funding, this class action against BT Trustees would be unlikely to have proceeded. The class action provides BT superannuation fund members with potential redress for the Trustees’ alleged failure to comply with duties they owed to them.