Ausbil to pay $18 million in compensation to investors

Ausbil, the responsible entity of the Ausbil Investment Trusts – Australian Emerging Leaders Fund, advised investors that it would undertake remedial action regarding overcharging of fees between December 2004 and January 2014 due to an inconsistency between the fees outlined in the fund's product disclosure statement and the fees permitted under the fund's constitution.

ASIC commissioner Greg Tanzer said: “ASIC welcomes Ausbil's identification and reporting of the overcharging issue, and action to compensate.”

“We expect nothing less of entities who discover issues like this with their systems that are detrimental to their clients.” 

According to ASIC, Ausbil has completed the payment of compensation to direct investors and is currently in the process of assisting platforms to make payment to their underlying clients impacted by the error.

The compensation is expected to return investors to the position they would have been in had the error not occurred.

“ASIC will work with entities who report issues to us to ensure consumers are compensated in a timely, effective way,” said Mr Tanzer.

Ausbil has appointed KPMG as an independent adviser to review the compensation methodology.