The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has accepted an enforceable undertaking from car financier, BMW Australia Finance Limited, in order to compensate customers for the car company's large scale failures to follow responsible lending rules. BMW Finance provides motor vehicle finance to consumers, directly and through a network of motor vehicle dealers. The affected consumers have car loans for a wide range and variety of vehicles and car brands, both new and second hand, taken out under the BMW Financial Services, Mini Financial Services and Alphera Financial Services brands."BMW Finance had a sales-driven culture that failed to comply with the requirements of the credit laws and resulted in poor outcomes for many consumers. We are encouraged that BMW Finance has recognised these shortcomings and agreed to a remediation program that will see thousands of consumers compensated," said ASIC Deputy Chairman, Peter Kell.The remediation program will identify at least 15,000 customers who, between January 2011 and August 2016, may have suffered hardship as a result of BMW Finance's compliance failures, and will ensure appropriate remediation. BMW Finance will also remove default listings and buy back all debt sold to third parties to ensure that the written-off loans are not subject to further collections activities.Once underway, this will become Australia's largest consumer credit remediation program, with at least A$72 million provided in redress, as follows: $14.6 million in remediation payments; $7.6 million in interest rate reductions on current contracts; and $50 million in loan write offs.BMW Finance has also agreed to pay a $5 million community benefit to contribute to consumer advocacy and financial literary initiatives.The program will be overseen by an independent remediation consultant, who will periodically report to ASIC on its progress and on BMW Finance's compliance with the program."This is an example of the staggering cost of poor business practices and should act as a warning to other car financiers to get their houses in order," Kell said.ASIC has also amended BMW Finance's Australian Credit Licence to extend an external consultant's oversight of BMW Finance until the end of 2017 and introduce 'live review' testing of credit applications on a quarterly basis to ensure compliance with consumer credit laws.None of the clauses agreed to above, nor any of the dozens of infringement notices and penalties issued by ASIC against BMW Australia for repeated breaches of consumer protection provisions, are mentioned on the company's website.In contrast, ASIC has provided detailed advice on its MoneySmart page for all consumers who may want to be part of the remediation program.