ANZ chair Paul O'Sullivan
ANZ will pay a A$15 million fine for misleading customers about the funds available in their credit card accounts.
The Federal Court ruled that the bank breached the ASIC Act and the National Consumer Credit Protection Act when it falsely indicated that customers using one of 14 credit card accounts could obtain a cash advance from funds it said were available, without incurring fees and interest.
It turned out that ANZ had not cleared deposits into the credit card accounts and customers who obtained a cash advance based on the bank’s statement of available funds were charged fees and interest.
The breaches occurred between 2016 and 2018 and affected around 186,000 accounts. In addition to the fine, the bank has made remediation payments of more than $8.3 million.
The court said the breaches were the result of system errors that the bank should have been aware of and should have fixed in a timely manner, rather than taking years.
“ANZ did not do all things necessary to ensure that the credit activities authorised by its credit licence were engaged in efficiently, honestly and fairly,” the court said.
ANZ admitted to the breaches and ANZ and ASIC filed a statement of agreed facts and admissions with the court.
ANZ said in a statement yesterday that as part of its settlement with ASIC it will undertake further remediation for the period from November 2018 to September 2021.
Breaches during this latter period involved the ANZ Rewards Travel Adventures Card.