Around $4.5b in remediation due from big 6 instos

Six of Australia’s largest banking and financial services institutions have paid or offered just under $4.5 billion in compensation to customers who suffered loss or detriment because of fees for no service misconduct or non-compliant advice, according to an update from ASIC.

In the second half of last year alone, $1.1 billion had been paid or offered by AMP, ANZ, CBA, Macquarie, NAB, and Westpac.

In a media release on Monday morning, the regulator said ASIC anticipates this will be the final update on compensation because most of these programs are substantially complete.

The six institutions undertook the review and remediation programs to compensate affected customers due to two major ASIC reviews, which looked into the following:

• The extent of failure by the institutions to deliver ongoing advice services to financial advice customers who were paying fees to receive those services; and
• How effectively the institutions supervised their financial advisers to identify and deal with ‘non-compliant advice’.

ASIC compensation for financial advice-related misconduct project has highlighted the fees customers pay and the services they should receive in return. The subsequent programs have resulted in very significant remediation payments to affected consumers.

The table below summarises the institution’s compensation payments as of 31 December 2022.

Source: ASIC