ANZ fined $15m for misleading customers on available funds

The news: The Federal Court has fined ANZ $15 million for misleading customers over the amount of available funds and balances in credit card accounts. The court found ANZ falsely indicated customers could obtain a cash advance from funds stated to be their 'available balance' without incurring interest or fees.

The numbers: ANZ has remediated more than 186,000 accounts for fees and interest charged — sometimes in the thousands of dollars — on cash advances between May 2016 and November 2018. In addition to the penalty, ANZ will establish a program to repay customers who paid cash advance fees between November 2018 and September 2021.

The context: The court also found ANZ failed to take action efficiently once it was aware of the error. ASIC brought the initial case against ANZ in 2020.

What they said: "These are errors that we expect a bank to be aware of and fix in a timely manner. It should not have taken ANZ several years to address this issue," ASIC deputy chair Sarah Court said in a statement.