National Australia Bank has been ordered to pay $18.5 million in penalty fees for failure to provide “timely and effective” product disclosure statements according to ASIC.
The regulator says that between 2013 and 2019 NAB failed to fulfil its obligations as an AFSL holde to have procedures and systems in place to ensure people receive a PDS.
“NAB’s system failures resulted in significant fee disclosure failures over an extended period. This caused harm to customers as the inaccurate information meant they couldn’t make informed decisions about the financial services they were paying for,” stated ASIC deputy chair Sarah Court.
“The penalty of $18.5 million handed down to NAB is a timely reminder to financial services licensees to ensure they meet their obligations to their clients.”
The court found NAB charged fees for personal advice when no PDS had been provided, failed to provide PDS’ within the prescribed time and made “false or misleading’ representations to clients about what the clients had paid for and the services they had received.
Further, the court charged, NAB didn’t have the systems in place to ensure services were provided correctly, fee disclosure statements were compliant, or identify that it was charging prohibited fees.
“Customers need to have confidence in their financial services providers that they will be charged correctly for the services they receive and given accurate and timely information,” Court said.
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