The AMP announced this morning (Monday) the departure of chair Maxine Brenner after an emergency board meeting in Sydney on Sunday considered the recommendation of the Royal Commission’s Counsel assisting that Commissioner Kenneth Hayne could recommend criminal proceedings against the company.
She is being replaced by stand in CEO Mike Wilkins who will become executive chairman, the AMP statement to the ASX reaqd (https://corporate.amp.com.au/shareholder-centre/results-reporting/asx-announcements).
That should require Mr Wilkins to resign his directorships of rival insurers, QBR and Medibank private.
Wilkins replaced Craig Meller as CEO 10 days ago.
Meller has already gone – months earlier than his previously announced retirement – because of disclosures at the inquiry of how the company lied 20 times fo the corporate regulator, ASIC and mishandled and claimed a report from lawyers Clayton Utz was independent when it wasn’t.
Now Ms Brenner is following him out the door for much the same reasons, (she had the Clayton Utz report amended at one stage to drop Mr Meller’s name from a draft. It was later restored).
Her sacking was made certain by the news from the Royal Commission that criminal charges against AMP had been recommended by counsel assisting, Rowena Orr, QC.
The AMP also announced this morning that Group General Counsel Brian Salter, who had been stood side 11 days ago "will leave the company. His outstanding deferred remuneration will be forfeited as a result of the Board exercising its discretion,” the AMP statement said.
And fees for directors will be cut by 25% for 2018. The company holds its AGM in Melbourne Thursday week and three directors are up for re-election, with a groundswell of opposition building to their re-election, especially from big investor funds.
AMP shares fell 0.7% to $4.02 on Friday, the lowest they have been for more than six years.
Friday’s small fall was despite the recommendation that criminal charges be levelled against the company.
AMP shares fell 6.5% last week and are now down 22.5% so far this year (and more than 19% so far in April with just one session to go today). The drop in market value is well over $2.5 billion.
That loss is the doing of the board, led by Ms Brenner and including Mr Meller, and his predecessor, Craig Dunn, who was running the company when many of these problems emerged, or were not put right.
Senior counsel assisting, Rowena Orr QC, told commissioner, Ken Hayne on Friday, that it is open to find that AMP breached the Corporations Act by making “material” and “deliberate” attempts to mislead ASIC about the “extent and nature” of the ongoing fee for no service conduct.
In her closing address for this second round of hearings for the Commission, Ms Orr recommended that AMP be charged for breaching Section 64 of the ASIC Act, which is a criminal offence.
Through AMP’s dealings with ASIC regarding the extent and nature of its fee-for-no-service conduct, AMP adopted an attitude toward the regulator that was not forthright or honest, and demonstrated a deliberate attempt to mislead,” Ms Orr said.
