Big 4 bank sued by ASIC for allegedly misleading customers

On Monday, 30 May, ASIC confirmed it is suing ANZ for overstating its account balances and charging fees.

In a statement, the corporate regulator alleged that between May 2016 and November 2018, around 165,750 ANZ customers were charged cash advance fees and interest for withdrawing or transferring money from their credit card accounts based on an incorrect account balance.

ASIC claims that the issue is still yet to be “adequately fixed” and that customers are still being affected.

“We are concerned that, over a long period of time, ANZ overstated the available funds and balances on credit card accounts, and nonetheless charged fees and interest to customers who relied on this information when making withdrawals,” ASIC deputy chair Sarah Court said.

“In some cases, single customers were charged thousands of dollars in fees while the average cash advance fees and interest charged per affected account was $47.

“This alleged misconduct is the result of system errors within ANZ and a lack of effort to comprehensively fix these issues. We say that ANZ has been aware of the unlawful charging since at least 2018 and the problem is still occurring today.”

ASIC further alleges that since 24 September last year, ANZ engaged in “misleading” conduct where the amount of a customer’s ‘balance’ or ‘funds’ was in credit, the balance would be available to the customer for withdrawal without incurring fees or interest.

ASIC is seeking declarations and pecuniary penalties and orders from the Court that customers who have been charged since 2018 be remediated.  

In its own statement, ANZ said it is "considering the matters" brought forward by ASIC.

"ANZ will not be providing further comment given the matter is now before the Court," the statement read.

A hearing date is yet to be scheduled.

Neil Griffiths

Neil is the Deputy Editor of the wealth titles, including ifa and InvestorDaily.

Neil is also the host of the ifa show podcast.