The country’s biggest banks have paid or offered billions in compensation to customers over misconduct around financial advice.Credit:Paul Rovere
ASIC commissioner Danielle Press said a project looking at compensation for misconduct relating to financial advice has shone a light on the fees that customers are paying and the services they should be receiving in return.
“The subsequent programs have resulted in very significant remediation payments to affected consumers,” Press said.
About $1.1 billion of the total amount was paid or offered by banking and financial services institutions in the six months to December,the remainder of $4.7 billion was paid or offered before that time.
The update – which ASIC anticipates will be the final one – comes after eight years of the watchdog’s work addressing the failure of financial institutions and advisers to provide ongoing services to fee-paying customers.
In 2016,ASIC released a report revealing systemic failures in the advice divisions of AMP,ANZ,CBA and NAB,as well as some of their product issuers. These included the institutions’ failures to provide ongoing advice services to customers who had paid for them,advisers’ failure to provide these services,and product issuers failing to switch off advice fees for customers who did not have a financial adviser.
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