ANZ making full refunds to some ING fund investors

ANZ is making complete refunds in some circumstances to customers that invested in two frozen funds in New Zealand, the Dominion Post reported.

Banking Ombudsman Liz Brown told the newspaper her office had nearly 350 formal complaints from ANZ customers about advice from ANZ bank advisers to invest in the ING Diversified Yield Fund and the ING Regular Income Fund, funds both frozen in late 2008.

Brown said the settlements with ANZ had generally involved ANZ buying back all or part of the investors' units in the two funds, the newspaper reported.

"If I find that ANZ has misled the complainant about the investment, or it was unsuitable for their purpose, or poor advice, the usual remedy is to put the customer back in the position they would have been in if they had not received the advice," she told the Post.

"In some cases, they would never have invested in these funds, they would have left their money on term deposit. sSo what they are entitled to is a return of their capital plus what they would have earned. So that would be the buyout price.

"In other cases, let's say it would have been appropriate for them to have a portion of their money in one of these funds, not as much as they were advised to do, so there might be a partial buyout."

ING and ANZ have proposed to offer 60 to 62 cents to investors who want their money back this year, or 83c to 86c to those willing to wait five years.