(Reuters) – ANZ Group has been sanctioned for failing to stop or refund charges to deceased customers and for not responding to representatives of deceased customers within the required timeframe, Australia’s Banking Code Compliance Committee said on Tuesday.
The self-regulatory body had released its Deceased Estates Report in June 2023, which looked at how banks in Australia had met required obligations. The Banking Code Compliance Committee (BCCC) had then launched an investigation into three lenders, including ANZ Group.
“The decision to appoint ANZ for its non-compliance reflects the seriousness of the breaches of the Code,” said Ian Govey AM, chair of the BCCC.
“Mentioning a bank’s name is a sanction we reserve for the most serious and systematic violations.”
It took ANZ more than a year to implement fixes and almost a year to begin the remediation program with customers, despite the issue only being identified in early 2022.
The customer recovery program is still ongoing and is expected to be completed by the end of July.
Govey has also indicated that there are concerns about ANZ’s restructuring efforts.
(Reporting by Rishav Chatterjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema and Nivedita Bhattacharjee)
