ANZ announced on Monday that it has reached an agreement to settle a class action brought against it by Phi Finney McDonald in 2021.
According to the ASX listing, the class action relates to “certain interest charged on certain ANZ personal credit cards” in the period from 1 July 2010 to 1 January 2019.
ANZ said it will pay $57.5 million in the settlement but noted that the settlement is “without admission of liability”.
The sum of the settlement is covered by a provision held at 30 September 2023, the big four bank added.
ANZ first acknowledged the class action back in 2021. At the time, it said that class action proceedings had been filed by Phi Finney McDonald in the Federal Court of Australia against the ANZ Group.
“The class action is understood to allege that ANZ’s credit card contracts were unfair, and contravened the Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act,” the big four said.
Also at the time, Phi Finney McDonald told InvestorDaily that “the alleged misconduct by ANZ harmed everyday consumers by charging interest on purchase that they repaid in a timely manner and retroactively charging them interest on what had previously been interest-free purchases”.
According to the allegations, the manner in which the ANZ charged interest made it impossible for the typical credit card holder to understand the way interest would be calculated and how much interest would be charged.
Charging retrospective interest on credit cards with an interest-free period has been outlawed by Parliament since 1 January 2019 through amendment of the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2019 (Cth)(NCCP) (New Scheme) by the Treasury Laws Amendment (Banking Measures No. 1) Bill 2018 (TLA Amendment).
