Fionnghuala Cuncannon: On ANZ and ASB possibly having to refund interest to more than 100-thousand customers with home loans

ANZ and ASB may have to refund interest to more than 100-thousand customers with home loans.

Plaintiffs are seeking the refund after the banks breached consumer rights contracts.

The Court of Appeal has ordered affected customers will be automatically included in the case.

Class action lawyer Fionnghuala Cuncannon told Heather du Plessis Allan the banks failed to comply with their disclosure obligations.

ANZ hasn't opposed the decision, but says it has already rectified the situation with customers, paying out more than 35 million dollars.

ASB says it does not comment on litigation.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now am Z and ASB may have to refund interest
to more than one hundred thousand customers with home loans.
This is a Court of Appeal decision today that customers
are automatically included in the class action lawsuit rather than
it being opt in. They have to opt out to
get out of it now. For Kun Cannon is a
class action lawyer at Kun Cannon Partners and with us

(00:20):
right now, for Neula, Hello, hi herether, how are you
very well? Thank you? You actually know what the banks
have done wrong here?

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Yes, they have failed to comply with their disclosure obligations
under the Triple CFA, the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
Yeah, and what does that mean for my wallet?

Speaker 2 (00:37):
What it means is that when you're making decisions about
your finances, you don't have all of the information, So
you don't know exactly what your bank is charging you,
when and why.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
And so if you went into the home loan deal
without knowing the full information, they've got to give you
money back, do they.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
Well, that's one of the issues here there is on
what basis do banks and other lending institutions when they
breach the Triple CFA, On what basis do they have
to compensate consumers, And this claim alleges that what they
have to do is give you back all seas and
interest for the whole period that they're in default.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
WHOA, how much might that be?

Speaker 2 (01:12):
Well, I understand it's in the hundreds of millions. I'm
not involved in the case directly, but the allegation is
that there are hundreds of millions of dollars at stake
are in this camp per customer.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
This could be tens of thousands of dollars.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
Right, that's right.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
Okay, So if we are now all opt in, right,
you are in there regardless sorry it's opt out. You're
in regardless of whether you know about it or not.
Do dispent teach potentially make it one of the biggest
class actions in the country.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
No, yeah, absolutely. It's a hugely significant decision from the
Court of Appeal and a really important decision in terms
of moving the dial for access to justice because we know,
and the Court of Appeal was really clear that making
things difficult for consumers frustrates access to justice by putting
unnecessary hurdles in front of people. Who is, banks have

(02:00):
admitted from the fact that they've breached you know, have
entitlements here. So it's a really important procedural decision. Maybe
only the lawyers will get excited about it, but it's
really important that customers will be able to participate in
this claim without the procedural hurdles of having to join
and opt in proceeding.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
How do you know if you're an ASB customer or
A and Z customer, whether you whether you're do some dollars?

Speaker 2 (02:24):
So there are a time periods that apply. You need
to have been a mortgage customer. There's I think, look,
it's not my case, Heather, but there isn't a website
where people can go and find information about the case
and get more information about what their rights might be. Things.
Important point is if they don't have to do anything
at this point, heither that the case will continue and

(02:48):
there will be decisions made and judgments will will proceed
without having to people to take active steps at this point.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
Yeah, good stuff. Hey, I really appreciate your time. That's
Fornula can and who's a class action lawyer. So these
are the periods if you're an ASB Bank customer with
a home loan between the sixth of June twenty fifteen
and the eighteenth of June twenty nineteen, you could be impacted,
and an A and Z customer between the sixth of
June twenty fifteen and the twenty eighth of May twenty
sixteen you may be impacted as well.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
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