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Kiwibank is facing criminal charges from the Commerce Commission after it was found to have overcharged more than 36,000 customers approximately $7 million in fees and interest rates on home loans, credit cards, and overdrafts.
The overcharges, which stem from both manual and electronic system errors, were described as serious breaches of the Fair Trading Act by the Commerce Commission deputy chair Anne Callinan. She said they were ‘systemic issues’, some dating back to Kiwibank’s inception in 2002 which have led to long-term misrepresentations of what customers owed. The charges specifically address overcharges from 2019 onwards.
The investigation was initiated by Kiwibank, which identified and reported the overcharges to the Commerce Commission. Since then, the bank has been in the process of contacting affected customers and refunding the overcharged amounts.
This article was first published on the Daily Telegraph New Zealand.
