ASIC civil penalty relating to ANZ’s Breakfree package

Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited
9/833 Collins Street Docklands Victoria 3008 Australia
ABN 11 005 357 522
News Release
For release: 9 December 2021

ASIC civil penalty proceeding relating to ANZ’s Breakfree
package and offset calculations

ANZ today acknowledged the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has
commenced a civil penalty proceeding relating to benefits including fee waivers and
discounts not being applied under ANZ’s Breakfree package, as well as system errors
impacting offset account calculations.

The proceeding primarily relates to issues raised during an ANZ case study at the 2018
Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking Superannuation and Financial Services
Industry.


ASIC is alleging contraventions of certain misleading or deceptive conduct provisions of the
ASIC Act and breaches of the general obligations owed by financial services licensees under
the Corporations Act, including as a result of:

• not all applicable benefits being applied under the Breakfree package, including home
loan, transaction account and credit card fee waivers, home loan interest rate
discounts, and optional additional benefits such as discounts on insurance premiums;
and
• system errors affecting the calculation of offset benefits in certain circumstances,
including where customers made payments into their offset accounts on weekends or
non-business days.

ANZ has enhanced its systems and processes to address these issues and is undertaking
remediation programs. The remediation program for these offset account issues is complete.
ANZ has completed the majority of payments to customers impacted by the Breakfree
package issues relating to home loans, transaction accounts and credit cards, with
remaining payments expected to be made in 2022 and remediation for the optional
additional benefits being completed over 2022-2023.

ANZ and ASIC have filed a statement of agreed facts and admissions with the Court. ANZ
has admitted the contraventions and apologises to its customers who have been impacted.
ANZ does not intend to contest the proceeding and will join ASIC in submitting a proposed
penalty of $25 million to the Court.

The remediation and the proposed penalty are covered by existing provisions.

While ASIC has not alleged deliberate conduct, ANZ acknowledges its conduct fell short of
expectations and has co-operated fully with ASIC during its investigation.

Given that these issues are now the subject of Court proceedings, we will not be making any
further comment.

For media enquiries contact:
Stephen Ries
Head of Corporate Communications
Tel: +61 409 655 551


Approved for distribution by ANZ’s Continuous Disclosure Committee