Westpac & St George Finance Flex Commission Settlement Administration

The class action is about “flex commissions” paid by Westpac & St George Finance to car dealers. The class action claimed that Westpac & St George Finance allowed car dealers to set the interest rates on consumers’ car loans and paid higher commissions to car dealers when they set higher interest rates on those loans. The class action alleged that flex commissions were unfair and unlawful and resulted in consumers paying higher interest rates on their loans than they otherwise would have done.

The class action, in effect, claimed that the interest rate consumers paid on their car loans was unlawfully inflated because of the way flex commissions were calculated and paid to car dealers. This means any compensation is based on the extra amount eligible group members allegedly paid in interest on their car loans because of the flex commission structure than what they otherwise may have paid.

Any compensation you are entitled to will not take into account the full amount of your loan or the full amount of the interest you paid on your loan.

Group Members had a consumer car loan arranged through a car dealer between 1 March 2013 and 31 October 2018 with Westpac, St. George Finance, Bank of Melbourne or BankSA.

We expect to commence payments in 2027 after all bank account details are collected and verified.

We estimated that the settlement administration would take 12-15 months to complete from October 2025, when the administration commenced. We are on track to achieve that timeline.

This is because the defendants’ claimed legal claims for ‘unfair conduct’ were ‘out of time’ and the subject of a statutory time limitation, meaning claims under that legislation could not succeed for these group members.

As a result, these claims were different and carried significantly higher legal risk and this is reflected in the lower compensation amounts under the settlement distribution scheme.

The Court independently assessed the fairness of the scheme (including the approach to calculating compensation) and determined it was fair and reasonable for all group members including those group members who entered into pre-15 July 2014 loans and who had claims in mistake only. We will tell you if this applies to you.

The registration deadline was 23 July 2025. We cannot accept new registrations now. This deadline was set by Court order, and Maurice Blackburn does not have discretion to change it.

This is true even if you mistakenly registered for the wrong proceeding, such as a different flex commissions class action.

You are registered for the flex commission class action against Westpac & St George Finance if you completed the registration form on our website by 23 July 2025 in respect of this class action.

Registered Group Members will have received an email confirming their registration upon completion of their registration and will have received communications from us since. New registrations cannot be accepted.

The SDS establishes the procedures for distributing the settlement sum to Eligible Group Members. 

The SDS was approved by the Supreme Court of Victoria as part of settlement approval.

A copy of the SDS is available here.

Please do not send us your bank details. We will tell you when and how you can provide your bank details later in the settlement administration, in a safe and secure way.

If you do not submit information as requested by a deadline provided, you will likely be deemed a ‘Non-Responsive Group Member’ under the SDS. Non-Responsive Group Members are not entitled to compensation under the SDS.

We will tell you in the notice we send you whether this will happen if you fail to comply with the deadline.

You will never have to pay costs out of pocket for this class action.

Most of the $130m settlement will be distributed amongst eligible group members.

The Court approved the following deductions from the settlement sum.

1. Legal costs:

   The Court ordered that legal costs be calculated as 24.5% of any settlement or judgment sum.

   This means the plaintiffs’ lawyers received $31,850,000 for legal costs and the risks taken in running the class action from July 2020 to August 2025.

   This gave certainty to group members because it meant costs would not exceed 24.5% of any settlement sum. Maurice Blackburn also indemnified the plaintiff so that it would pay any costs ordered in the proceeding, including the defendants’ costs, if the class action was unsuccessful.

2. Settlement administration costs:

   The Court appointed Maurice Blackburn Lawyers as the settlement administrator to implement the settlement distribution scheme. The Court approved $3,005,200 in settlement administration costs associated with implementing the settlement distribution scheme

   During the settlement administration, the settlement sum will be placed into an interest-bearing bank account. Any interest accrued forms part of the settlement sum. The interest will firstly be used to pay settlement administration costs. Any remaining interest will be managed and distributed to eligible group members in accordance with the SDS.

3. Plaintiff reimbursement payment:

   The Court approved a reimbursement payment to each of the two plaintiffs to compensate them for their time associated with the class action.

We are unlikely to be able to respond to calls or emails about any information that is contained on this webpage as all information you need to know at this stage, can be found here.

We will send all critical communications, which are personal to you and your claim/s, by email.  

If you need information about something not already answered on this webpage, email westpacflexca@mauriceblackburn.com.au.  Please ensure that you include the nature of your request in the subject matter of the email to assist us in managing responses.

If your enquiry requires a timely response (and is not generic in nature or concerns a matter which can be dealt with later in the settlement administration), then we will respond to you as soon as we can.