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ASIC sues ANZ
The corporate regulator has commenced Federal Court proceedings against banking giant ANZ for allegedly misleading its customers as to the available funds and balances in their credit card accounts.
Jerome Doraisamy
In a statement issued earlier on the morning of Monday, 30 May, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) said that it has commenced civil penalty proceedings in the Federal Court of Australia against multinational banking and financial services company ANZ.
ASIC is alleging that – between May 2016 and November 2018 – almost 166,000 customers of ANZ were charged cash advance fees and interest for withdrawing or transferring money from their credit card accounts based on an incorrect account balance, including on the ANZ website, ANZ App and at ATMs.
Moreover, the regulator is submitting that ANZ has not adequately fixed the problem and that customers continue to be affected.
ASIC claims that, in a more than five-year period between 2016 and 2021, the bank made “false or misleading representations that where a customer’s ‘Current Balance’ and ‘Available Funds’ were in credit, the Current Balance would be available to the customer for withdrawal without incurring fees or interest”; that since 24 September of last year, the bank “engaged in conduct that is misleading or deceptive by representing that 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”; and that the bank has “failed to do all things necessary to ensure the credit activities authorised by its Australian Credit Licence are engaged in efficiently, honestly and fairly”.
Speaking about the proceedings, ASIC deputy chair Sarah Court said: “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.
“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, Ms Court went on, 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,” Ms Court proclaimed.
ANZ has, ASIC pointed out, remediated over $10 million to customers who were affected up until 17 November 2018.
However, it added, “the problem is still continuing”.
As such, the regulator is seeking orders from the Federal Court for remediation of those who have been wrongly charged since 2018.
It further seeks declarations and pecuniary penalties from the court, and orders that require ANZ to implement a system change so that where a payment is made to a customer’s credit card account, it is not included in their funds or balance until that amount is cleared by ANZ and available to use without adverse consequences.
The first case management hearing is yet to be scheduled.
Jerome Doraisamy
Jerome Doraisamy is the editor of Lawyers Weekly. A former lawyer, he has worked at Momentum Media as a journalist on Lawyers Weekly since February 2018, and has served as editor since March 2022. He is also the host of all five shows under The Lawyers Weekly Podcast Network, and has overseen the brand's audio medium growth from 4,000 downloads per month to over 60,000 downloads per month, making The Lawyers Weekly Show the most popular industry-specific podcast in Australia. Jerome is also the author of The Wellness Doctrines book series, an admitted solicitor in NSW, and a board director of Minds Count.
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