The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) is suing the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) for allegedly misleading more than a hundred thousand customers about the available funds in their credit card accounts.
Deputy Chair of ASIC, Sarah Court said the Commission 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.
Ms Court said ASIC also alleged ANZ had not adequately fixed the problem and that customers continued to be 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,” Ms 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,” she said.
“This alleged misconduct is the result of system errors within ANZ and a lack of effort to comprehensively fix these issues.”
Ms Court said ASIC alleged ANZ had been aware of the unlawful charging since at least 2018 and the problem was still occurring today.
She said that while ANZ had remediated over $10 million to customers who were affected up until 17 November 2018, the problem was continuing.
“ASIC is seeking orders from the Court that customers who have been wrongly charged since 2018 also be remediated,” she said.
“ASIC also seeks 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.”
