Risk Regulatory Update
/ASICs taking NAB to Federal Court over allegations of incorrect charges
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) is taking National Australia Bank (NAB) to Federal Court over allegations that the bank incorrectly charged fees to customers across a 12-year period. ASIC is seeking a financial penalty and their costs covered.
The allegations of incorrectly charged fees relate to periodic payment fees in personal and business banking for periodic transfers from accounts. The fee was set at $1.80 for periodical payments to other NAB accounts and $5.30 for any payment to other banks. Many customers were exempt from these specific fees, but NAB charged for them anyway.
The alleged discharging occurred from 2007-2019, with an estimated 5,700 customers were mischarged 195,305 times, equating to over $365,400. NAB identified its mischarging in 2016 after another bank was found doing the same. NAB, however, took over a year to report it to ASIC and nearly 2.5 years to fix its systems in 2019.
FASEA update on financial adviser exam
The Financial Adviser Standards and Ethics Authority (FASEA) has provided an update on the Financial Adviser Exams.
The exam has been offered 10 times in person and online since June 2019
There have been 11,241 candidates successfully complete the exam (an 89 per cent success rate)
1,900 candidates are already registered for the March exam
There are five more exams to be held in 2021
The transition period is the last day of 2021
