SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia's Westpac Banking Corp WBC.AX has been accused of 23 million breaches of anti-money laundering law, with regulators saying the company enabled payments from convicted child sex offenders and "high risk" countries over half a decade.

FILE PHOTO: Pedestrians walk past a branch of the Westpac Banking Corporation in central Sydney, Australia July 25, 2017. REUTERS/David Gray/File Photo

Westpac says it self-reported the breaches and has shut down the mechanism used to allow the payments.

Here are the accusations made by the regulator, AUSTRAC, against Westpac, Australia’s second largest bank, in a civil court filing published on Wednesday:

- Failed to assess and monitor money laundering and terrorism financing risks associated with the banking services it provided to customers through other banks around the world.

- Failed to carry out appropriate due diligence on customers sending money to the Philippines and South East Asia for known child exploitation risks.

- Failed to report millions of international funds transfer instructions to AUSTRAC or to other banks

- Knew since 2013 of heightened child exploitation risks associated with frequent low value payments to the Philippines and South East Asia but only began monitoring in June 2018.

- Failed to do appropriate due diligence on 12 customers to identify, mitigate and manage known child exploitation risks despite repeated patterns of frequent low value transactions.

- Identified a suspicious payment from a customer convicted of child exploitation then failed to stop the customer sending payments to the Philippines.

- Hindered law enforcement efforts and deprived AUSTRAC and tax authorities of information relating to over A$11 billion in international payments for up to six years.

- Exposed the Australian payments system to “unacceptable and longstanding” money laundering and terrorism financing risks.

- Failed to check partner banks which had relationships with “high risk or sanctioned” countries including Iraq, Lebanon, Ukraine, Zimbabwe, Democratic Republic of Congo.