WORLD
Australian bank ANZ rapped for charging fees from dead customers
- IBJ Bureau
- Jul 02, 2024
Australian lender ANZ has been sanctioned for failing to stop or refund fees for dead customers and not responding to their representatives within a required timeframe, a committee that looks at the banking industry’s practices has said.
The Banking Code Compliance Committee (BCCC), a self-regulation body, had in June 2023 come out with its Deceased Estates Report, which looks at how banks in Australia had complied with the required obligations.
The BCCC had then begun an investigation into three lenders, including the ANZ Group.
The practice of continuing to charge fees from dead customers prominently featured during the Hayne Royal Commission, which was established in December 2017 by the Australian government.
“The decision to name ANZ for its non-compliance reflects the seriousness of its code breaches,” BCCC chair Ian Govey has said, adding: “Naming a bank is a sanction that we reserve for the most serious and systemic breaches.”
ANZ did not immediately respond to a Reuters’ request for comment.
Despite initially identifying the issues in early 2022, ANZ has taken more than a year to implement solutions and then nearly two years to begin the customer remediation programme.
The customer remediation programme is still going on and expected to be finalised by July-end.
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