ANZ/ASB class action given green light by High Court
Monday, 1 August 2022
A multimillion dollar class action claim against ANZ and ASB has been given the green light by the High Court in Auckland.
The claim, being taken by solicitor Scott Russell, alleges the two banks failed to refund more than 150,000 borrowers interest and fees after breaching their disclosure obligations.
The action is an opt-out claim, meaning that each of those 150,000 borrowers will be included in the claim, unless they opt out.
ANZ and ASB have indicated they intend to defend the action.
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Russell said: “The High Court has agreed with our position that over 150,000 ANZ and ASB home and personal loan customers who were affected by their bank’s alleged failure to comply with the law should be part of the class action.
“Importantly, all of these customers are now part of the claim and will have the opportunity to get back the money our claim alleges their bank was not entitled to charge or take from them, unless they elect to opt-out of the claim.”
The case is being brought under the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act 2003.
The claim was launched after both banks admitted in settlements with the Commerce Commission Te Komihana Tauhokohoko that they had failed to take the necessary care required of a responsible lender.
ASB admitted in May last year that it had failed to exercise the care of a responsible lender by breaching the lender responsibility principles under the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act.
The bank said it would make payments of $8.1 million to about 73,000 people who had home and personal loans with it between June 2015 and July 2019.
Borrowers received payments of between $68 or $135.
In March the previous year, ANZ admitted it had let down more than 100,000 customers by failing to take the necessary care required of a responsible lender.
In a settlement with the commission, it agreed to pay customers a further $29.4m after admitting a breach of its responsible lending obligations between June 2015 and May 2016, having previously paid affected customers about $6m.
Russell said the law requires the banks to refund all interest and fees charged to borrowers during the periods covered by the banks’ disclosure failures.
An ASB spokesperson said: “We are vigorously defending this action.”
An ANZ spokesperson said: “ANZ will continue to defend the claims.
“We have yet to confirm the numbers but we estimate the ANZ class has reduced to around 17,000,” she said.
They were customers who entered into a home loan or personal loan with ANZ between June 6, 2015 and May 28, 2016, and requested a variation to that loan during that period, she said.
“ANZ has already compensated all affected customers in accordance with the settlement agreed with the Commerce Commission,” she said.
“The approval by the High Court is important because it provides a high level of certainty that the case will now proceed through the court system,” Russell said.
“This means ANZ and ASB will be held to account for what our claim alleges are serious and ongoing breaches of our consumer protection laws,” he said.