Australian watchdog has sued Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ Bank) for overstating available funds and balances on customers’ credit card accounts. 

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has initiated civil penalty proceedings in the Federal Court against ANZ Bank.

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ASIC has alleged that the bank overstated the funds available on the credit card account and then charged cash advance fees and interest for withdrawing or transferring money from them based on incorrect information. 

The regulator said between May 2016 and November 2018, 165,750 ANZ customers were charged wrongly. 

ASIC has also alleged that the bank has not resolved the issue and it continues to affect customers. 

ASIC Deputy Chair Sarah Court said: “We are concerned that, over a long period of time, ANZ overstated the available funds and balances on credit card accounts, and nonetheless charged fees and interest to customers who relied on this information when making withdrawals.

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“This alleged misconduct is the result of system errors within ANZ and a lack of effort to comprehensively fix these issues. We say that ANZ has been aware of the unlawful charging since at least 2018 and the problem is still occurring today.”

ANZ Bank has acknowledged claims made by ASIC and said it is considering the matters raised by the regulator. 

Notably, the bank has already remediated more than A$10m to customers who were affected up until 17 November 2018. 

“ASIC is seeking orders from the Court that customers who have been wrongly charged since 2018 also be remediated,” the regulator’s statement read.

In December 2021, ANZ Bank was fined for failing to provide certain benefits it had agreed to.