The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has started civil penalty proceedings against Westpac in the Federal Court over alleged compliance failings that include distribution of duplicate general insurance policies.

The Westpac businesses against which the allegations are made include its banking, superannuation and wealth management brands as well as Westpac’s former general insurance business.

“The conduct and breaches alleged in these proceedings caused widespread consumer harm,” ASIC Deputy Chairman Sarah Court said today.

“A common aspect across these matters has been poor systems, poor processes and poor governance, which is suggestive of an overall poor compliance culture within Westpac at the relevant time.”

The relevant period for the general insurance issues refers to the time from November 30 2015 to June 30 this year.

The six proceedings filed include an allegation that Westpac distributed duplicate general insurance policies to more than 7000 customers for the same property at the same time, causing them to pay for unnecessary additional policies.

ASIC also says Westpac issued policies to and sought premiums from 329 customers who had not consented to entering into a policy.

A statement of agreed facts says Westpac has made remediation payments of $7.63 million to 4159 customers who had duplicate policies, and has identified a further $3.98 million for 3093 customers who it has been unable to contact.

Court documents say duplications occured because system limitations meant that when a customer requested a change to their original policy, a new version had to be created. This meant a cancellation request had to be made for the original but, if that didn’t happen, both remained in place.

Other Westpac matters targeted by the ASIC action include subsidiary BT Funds Management allegedly breaching a ban on commission payments when charging members for insurance in super.

Some members were charged even though they had elected to have the financial adviser component removed from their account. BT is remediating more than $12 million to more than 8000 members.

In a fees for no service issue, ASIC alleges that over 10 years, Westpac and related entities charged more than $10 million in advice fees to over 11,000 deceased customer for services “that were not provided due to their death”.

Other matters relate to inadequate fee disclosure for financial advice, deregistered company accounts and debt on-sale.

Westpac said today that had had reached agreement with ASIC to resolve “six separate longstanding matters” through agreed civil penalty proceedings filed in the Federal Court.

The matters include investigations instigated after Westpac self-reported issues, including some raised during the Hayne royal commission.

“In each of these matters, Westpac has fallen short of our standards and the standards our customers expect of us,” CEO Peter King said.

“The issues raised in these matters should not have occurred, and our processes, systems and monitoring should have been better. We are putting things right and unreservedly apologise to our customers.”

ASIC and Westpac will submit agreed proposed penalties for each of the proceedings, totalling $113 million, with the amount subject to court approval.

Westpace says the penalties have been “substantially provisioned, together with anticipated legal costs” in its full-year results.

Westpac General Insurance Ltd became a subsidiary of Allianz Australia from July 1 this year.