Australian regulator orders banks to review sales practices
Australian financial regulator, ASIC, is ordering the nation's banks to review whether staff has been engaging in practices that were exposed at US lender Wells Fargo, which is embroiled in a cross-selling scandal tied to staff sales targets. The banks ordered to undertake independent reviews are ANZ Bank, Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank, Westpac, Suncorp, Citi, Bank of Queensland, and HSBC.

Australia's major banks must review whether staff have been setting up accounts customers did not want in order to hit sales targets, after the cross-selling scandal engulfing United States lender Wells Fargo.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission revealed on Friday it had written to lenders in the last week requiring them to conduct audits on cross-selling, where banks seek to sign customers up for multiple products, often in wealth management.

US lender Wells Fargo was fined $US100 million ($135 million) and chief executive John Stumpf last month resigned, after staff at the bank were found to have created millions of fake accounts to meet sales targets.

Local banks also use sales targets for frontline staff, and ASIC wants to make sure there are not similar problems here. It is demanding ANZ Bank, Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank, Westpac, Suncorp, Citi, Bank of Queensland and HSBC carry out independent reviews of cross-selling.