ANZ charged over 'false and misleading' credit card insurance policies impacting hundreds of customers

Brian from New Lynn

During April 2014 and November 2019, ANZ issued duplicate repayment insurance policies to customers that didn't provide any additional benefits or covers, and charged premiums on those policies, the FMA said today.
It's also alleged ANZ issued and didn't cancel policies for ineligible customers, also charging premiums on the policies. "ANZ sold a product that, for some customers, offered no benefit," FMA general counsel Nick Kynoch says. The FMA says the breaches range back to at least 2001, but the Financial Markets Conduct Act only came into effect from April 2014. The duplicate payment policy was identified around September 2017 and the ineligible customers issue around May 2018, the FMA says. But neither were disclosed to the FMA or Reserve Bank during a widespread review into the conduct and culture of New Zealand's retail banks in 2018. FMA says it was first notified by ANZ of the issues in June 2019. ANZ is being charged under the Act for making "false and misleading representations about the cover of the policies". "While ANZ has embarked on their own remediation programme, and ultimately self-reported this matter, the case points to a failure of internal systems and controls resulting in customer harm over a significant period of time," Mr Kynoch says. "In this instance, we felt it appropriate to put the matter before the courts." ANZ says it's already compensated customers around $440,000 in total, but admits there was a delay in reporting the issue to the FMA. Around 390 customers had duplicate policies and another 439 were ineligible to claim the insurance. The FMA's case relates to 307 customers. ANZ says it no longer offers the insurance. "We’re very sorry this happened," ANZ's Ben Kelleher said in a statement today. "We actively review our processes and systems to try and identify issues that could impact our customers. Where we find problems, we work to fix them for our customers." The FMA has filed the proceedings in the High Court and is seeking declarations of contravention of the Financial Markets Conduct Act, pecuniary penalties and costs.
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