Storm Financial investors face a long wait for compensation
The investors in the collapsed Storm Financial may have to wait another year for compensation even though the Australian Securities and Investments Commission won an initial court victory against banks over their alleged involvement with Storm.
Federal Court judge Lindsay Foster rejected challenges last week by Macquarie Bank, Bank of Queensland and Senrac, the operator of a BoQ branch, against ASIC’s representative action on behalf of two former Storm investors.
Despite this procedural win, Mark Weir, co-chairman of the Storm Investors Consumer Action Group, told the Australian Financial Review the wait for compensation would be prolonged.
“We need to be patient to have it done properly. But it has been extremely tough,” Weir says.
Storm collapsed three years ago after its highly leveraged investments were hit by market volatility in December 2008.
Legal actions are under way against BoQ, Commonwealth Bank and Macquarie Bank because of their alleged involvement with Storm.