ANZ Bank’s New Zealand operation has agreed to pay a $3.25 million (US$1.92 million) penalty after admitting it twice breached fair dealing laws. The agreement was reached after an investigation by the Financial Markets Authority (FMA).
The first breach involved wrongly charging fees and interest to customers whose accounts went into arrears without first having applied for an overdraft facility—what banks call an “unarranged overdraft.”
But just as the bank had not agreed to the overdraft, the customers had not agreed to pay those fees and interest either. ANZ’s terms and conditions allowed it to either charge a fee or dishonour the payment that pushed the account into arrears, but not both….
ANZ Bank Pays $3.25 Million Penalty for Misleading New Zealand Customers
