Australia’s securities regulator takes ANZ to court over home loan referrals

Nov 26 (Reuters) – The Australian Securities and Investments Fee (ASIC) on Friday mentioned it commenced authorized proceedings in opposition to Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ.AX) for house lone referrals beneath its ‘introducer program’.

The regulator added that between June 2016 and March 2018, ANZ breached shopper safety credit score legal guidelines by accepting buyer info and paperwork from introducers and different unlicensed people, when this was not allowed.

The Introducer Program is a reward-based program via which companies and neighborhood organisations refer clients and members with house mortgage must ANZ.

ASIC was involved that some loans could have been granted by ANZ primarily based on false info, mentioned Deputy Chair Sarah Court docket, including that some shoppers could have entered into house loans that had been past their capability to pay.

From 2015 to June 2020, greater than 50,000 loans had been referred to ANZ via the introducer program, leading to lending of greater than A$18.5 billion, the assertion added.

ANZ mentioned in a separate assertion that it has co-operated with ASIC throughout its investigation and has additionally established a buyer remediation program, whereas “repeatedly enhancing” its house mortgage processes and controls.

Scrutiny of Australian lenders and monetary establishments has ramped up considerably since a Royal Fee inquiry in 2018 discovered widespread shortcomings within the sector, forcing firms and regulators to take swift motion.

Final month, the nation’s largest lender Commonwealth Financial institution of Australia (CBA.AX) had pleaded responsible to 30 prison prices for mis-selling shopper credit score insurance coverage between 2011 and 2015. read more

Reporting by Indranil Sarkar in Bengaluru
Enhancing by Nick Zieminski

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