The Federal Court will be asked to impose penalties of $113 million on Westpac for breaches including systems failings that caused customers to pay for unnecessary duplicate general insurance policies.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) said last week it had started civil penalty proceedings against West over six separate matters, also involving its banking, superannuation and wealth management operations.

“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,” ASIC Deputy Chairman Sarah Court said.

Court documents say the insurance duplications happened as the system required a new policy to be created when a customer requested a change to their initial arrangements. This meant a cancellation request had to be made for the original but, if that didn’t happen, both remained in place.

The general insurance issues “relevant period” was from November 30 2015 to June 30 this year.

ASIC and Westpac will submit agreed proposed penalties for each of the proceedings, totalling $113 million, with the amount subject to court approval. The bank has also made remediation payments.

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

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