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Institutions’ fees-for-no-service bill tops $1bn

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By Sarah Kendell & Sarah Simpkins
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3 minute read

More than $1 billion has been coughed up to compensate customers of Australia’s six largest financial institutions as a result of fee for no service or non-compliant financial advice, the corporate regulator has said.

In a statement released on Monday, ASIC said a total of $1.05 billion had been paid or offered in compensation to affected consumers as at 30 June 2020.

Around $296 million in payments had been offered or made by the institutions in the six months to June.

A breakdown of payments released by the regulator revealed NAB had topped the list in terms of dollar amounts paid or offered since remediation reviews began at the institutions in 2015.

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The major bank had paid or offered over $368 million in compensation to more than 625,000 customers affected by fees-for-no-service (FFNS) conduct and a further $52.1 million for non-compliant advice to 1,623 customers. 

CBA followed, having made over $167 million in payments or offers of payment to over 54,000 customers for FFNS, and an additional $9.3 million to 626 customers affected by non-compliant advice. 

The Commonwealth Bank alerted the regulator at the end of March, that all customers who had received inappropriate advice between 1 January 2009 to 30 June 2015 had been compensated.

Meanwhile AMP had paid or offered more than $145 million for FFNS, for the second greatest number of impacted customers (199,425), as it gave out $28.6 million for non-compliant advice to 2,043 consumers.

Westpac has paid $130.5 million for fees for no service, in addition to $34.1 million for non-compliant advice.

ANZ paid $66.6 million for FFNS, as well as $39.1 million for non-compliant advice. IOOF however will continue the customer review and remediation work for non-compliant advice in relation to ANZ’s aligned dealer groups (ADGs) after it acquired them in 2018.

The last institution, Macquarie, paid $3.9 million for 983 customers affected by fees for no service as at 30 June.