The settlement concludes four years of court action against ASB. Photo / NZME
ASB has agreed to pay $135.6 million to settle a class action after it was accused of breaching its disclosure obligations under the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act (CCCFA).
The settlement concludes four years of court action against ASB, leaving ANZ as the remaining defendant of the class action.
The case against ASB alleged failures to provide compliant written disclosure of loan variations to a significant number of customers.
As part of the settlement, ASB has made no admission of liability or wrongdoing.
ASB chief executive Vittoria Shortt said the settlement provided certainty for the bank and its customers.
“The agreement we’ve come to is a pragmatic way to settle this matter.
“We continue to strongly support the CCCFA Amendment Bill currently before Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Select Committee, which will bring clarity to this confusing piece of legislation.”
Scott Russell, the lawyer representing the ASB plaintiffs, said the settlement was a positive outcome for affected ASB customers.
“After four years of litigation, settlement provides certainty, avoiding what would otherwise be a very long and expensive fight through the courts.
“It importantly also removes the risk around the Government’s proposed retrospective law change in the CCCFA Amendment Bill.”
The Government is currently proposing to change the way the CCCFA is applied to the period between 2015 and 2019 so it aligns with the way it is applied post-2019.
Russell said ANZ customers also deserve a positive outcome.
“We remain fully committed to ensuring the rights of ANZ customers are upheld and ANZ repays the borrowing costs we say it was not allowed to charge or retain during the years it was allegedly non-compliant.”
A spokesperson for ANZ said ASB’s decision to settle is a commercial decision for them.
“ANZ NZ will continue to defend its case. Our position hasn’t changed. The potential consequences under the current law are disproportionate and not aligned with any actual harm caused.
“In ANZ NZ’s case, customers who underpaid their home loans by an average of just $2 per month could, under one interpretation of the law, be refunded the entire cost of borrowing up until today’s date. This is despite there being no customer harm.
“ANZ NZ has already been subject of investigation and enforcement action by the Commerce Commission in relation to the issues that are subject to the class action, after it self-reported those issues.
“ANZ NZ made itself accountable. ANZ NZ agreed to pay more than $35m to affected customers, leaving them all better off than they would have been if the issue hadn’t occurred.”
The Banking Class Action was filed in 2021 on behalf of New Zealand ANZ and ASB customers, making it one of the country’s largest class action lawsuits.
Between May 30, 2015 and May 28, 2016, due to a coding error in a loan calculator, ANZ provided some customers who made changes to their loans with letters intended to provide variation disclosure that contained inaccurate information.
These letters featured one or more of the following errors: the total amount payable under the loan, the total amount of interest payable, the amount of the regular payments, the total number of payments to be made, and the date of the final payment under their loans.
In its agreement with the Commerce Commission, ANZ admitted incorrect information was provided to more than 100,000 customers.
In July, both ANZ and ASB declined an open settlement offer from the Banking Class Action to each pay a penalty of about $300m, on top of the $43m already compensated to more than 173,000 customers.