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Westpac is holding crisis talks with its largest institutional investors as legal action over allegations by the money-laundering regulator that the bank breached laws more than 23m times ignited investigations by a raft of other corporate and financial regulators.

Shares in the nation’s second biggest bank continued to slide on Monday – down a further 1% to $24.50 at midday in a rising market – and credit ratings agency Moody’s issued a report saying the events unfolding were “ratings negative”.

The bank will also likely face a spate of class actions, with the first expected to be brought by law firm Phi Finney McDonald on behalf of shareholders.

Last Wednesday, Australia’s financial intelligence agency, Austrac, launched legal action against Westpac, accusing it of more than 23m breaches of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism finance laws involving $11bn in transactions, including transfers potentially linked to child exploitation.

Rank Bank name Total assets (US$ Billion)
1 China Industrial and Commercial Bank of China 4,027.44
2 China China Construction Bank Corporation 3,376.52
3 China Agricultural Bank of China 3,287.36
4 China Bank of China 3,092.21
5 Japan Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group 2,812.88
6 United States JPMorgan Chase & Co. 2,622.53
7 United Kingdom HSBC Holdings PLC 2,558.12
8 United States Bank of America 2,354.51
9 France BNP Paribas 2,336.66
10 France Crédit Agricole 2,123.61
11 United States Citigroup Inc. 1,917.38
12 Japan Japan Post Bank 1,911.48
13 United States Wells Fargo & Co. 1,895.88
14 Japan Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group 1,848.20
15 Japan Mizuho Financial Group 1,837.80
16 Spain Banco Santander 1,670.79
17 Germany Deutsche Bank 1,543.55
18 France Société Générale 1,485.31
19 France Groupe BPCE 1,462.70
20 United Kingdom Barclays PLC 1,444.39
21 China Bank of Communications 1,385.81
22 China Postal Savings Bank of China 1,383.63
23 Canada Royal Bank of Canada 1,039.24
24 Norway DNB ASA 1,016.55
25 Netherlands ING Group 1,015.61
26 Canada Toronto-Dominion Bank 1,006.00
27 China China Merchants Bank 980.81
28 France Crédit Mutuel 976.46
29 Japan Norinchukin Bank 961.37
30 Switzerland UBS 958.49
31 China Industrial Bank (China) 952.59
32 Italy UniCredit 951.99
33 United States Goldman Sachs 931.80
34 China Shanghai Pudong Development Bank 914.49
35 Italy Intesa Sanpaolo 901.90
36 United Kingdom Royal Bank of Scotland Group 884.82
37 China China CITIC Bank 882.08
38 China China Minsheng Bank 871.66
39 United States Morgan Stanley 853.53
40 Canada Scotiabank 785.44
41 Switzerland Credit Suisse 781.45
42 Spain Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria 774.78
43 Australia Commonwealth Bank 691.03
44 United Kingdom Standard Chartered 688.76
45 Australia Australia and New Zealand Banking Group 681.30
46 Netherlands Rabobank 676.02
47 Finland Nordea 638.02
48 Australia Westpac 636.69

The filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection by Lehman Brothers on September 15, 2008 remains the largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history, with Lehman holding over US$600 billion in assets.

It was reported by The Australian newspaper that Mr Hartzer had told his executive team on Monday that the scandal was “not an Enron or Lehman Brothers”