Jack Regan, ex AMP NZ chief, is suing a national publication across the Tasman over alleged defamatory comments in a 2023 article.
Regan, who led the AMP NZ business for 10 years until 2017, lodged court documents last week claiming a report in The Australian in January last year caused him “substantial distress, embarrassment and hurt”.
According to Australian media reports, the defamation charge hinges on comments in the article reputedly implying the former AMP executive personally misled the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) during the 2018/19 Royal Commission into financial services.
The-then AMP group head of advice and NZ, Regan admitted to the Kenneth Haynes-led Royal Commission that the company had misled ASIC several times over so-called advice fees-for-no-service.
Following the Royal Commission, AMP copped multiple fines and remediation expenses in relation to fees-for-no-service and other regulatory breaches. The ASX-listed group had paid out almost A$640 million in reparations for the faulty advice fees alone as of March last year, according to ASIC calculations.
In the wake of the Haynes investigation and other corporate issues, the more than 170 year-old AMP embarked on a substantial restructure, shedding its life insurance and asset management arms to emerge with trans-Tasman wealth management assets and an Australian bank.
Regan retired from AMP in 2018 after 20 years or so with the firm in various senior leadership roles including head of the Hillross advisory network, the NZ arm and his final stint atop the group advice division.
The looming defamation trial would likely be an unwelcome reminder of the recent past for AMP, which has looked to chart a different course under new chief, Alexis George.
High-profile lawyers Sue Chrysanthou of 153 Phillips Barristers and Craig Osbourne will represent Regan in the case.