CBA to pay refunds after failing to apply loan package benefits
Commonwealth Bank will refund around A$80 million to customers who signed up for home loan packages that included fee waivers and interest concessions that were then not applied.About 216,000 Mortgage Advance and Wealth Package customers did not receive all the discounts to which they were entitled.In some cases customers have been overpaying fees and interest since 2008.The Australian Securities and Investments Commission said in a media release that the bank relied on staff to apply the discounts manually. An exception reporting system, which was designed to detect when the discounts were not applied, did not work properly.The bank discovered the breach last year and reported it to ASIC. It also hired Ernst & Young to review its systems and ensure its remediation process identified all those affected.The bank started contacting affected customers last month and expects the majority to be repaid by the end of the year.Last month, ASIC announced that CBA would refund $7.6 million to 8400 customers after it failed to apply fee waivers and other benefits on its AgriAdvantage Plus package.The agri package, which included loans, overdrafts savings and transaction accounts, was launched in 2005.