Australian financial regulator has sued Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) for levying certain illegal fees on customers.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) in its lawsuit alleged that the bank charged customers for transferring money between their own accounts.
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The regulator alleged that ANZ continued to charge its customers for more than a decade despite being warned in 2011 that the move may be illegal.
In a statement, ASIC noted that between August 2003 and 23 February 2016 ANZ wrongly charged fees for periodical payments between accounts.
It added that the bank charged transaction fees for successful payments, and non-payment fees for failures.
The transaction fee varied between A$1.70 and A$4 for business accounts; and A$4 or free for retail accounts.
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By GlobalDataIt levied between A$35 and A$45, and between A$6 and A$45 as non-payment fee for business accounts and retail accounts, respectively.
ASIC alleges that ANZ unlawfully charged the fees on at least 1,340,087 occasions.
In the lawsuit, ASIC said that the bank did not notify it about the issue until 14 February 2014, despite being aware of it since July 2011.
It also delayed in notifying the customers, a process that started only after 23 September 2015.
ASIC estimates total gross loss to customers could exceed more than A$50m. The figure is based on the data between 1 January 2008 and 23 February 2016.
ANZ has already paid around A$28m as compensation to affected customers. But it is yet to remediate customers who have been charged the fees prior to 31 December 2007.
At the court, ASIC may seek pecuniary penalty of between A$1.7m and A$2.1m per contravention, as established under law.
In a separate statement, ANZ acknowledged receiving the notice from ASIC, but declined to comment further.
