Latest news with #PenelopeNeskovcin
7NEWS
a day ago
- Business
- 7NEWS
NAB cops $15 million fine for making vulnerable ‘people's lives far worse' with financial hardship failures
Hundreds of Australians doing it tough have been left in the dark by their bank after making requests for financial hardship support. The Federal Court ordered NAB and its subsidiary, AFSH Nominees, to pay a $15.5 million for the failure — a penalty that the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) hopes will encourage banks to put their customers first. NAB and AFSH admitted that they failed to respond to 345 financial hardship applications within the legally required timeframe of 21 days. 'As a result, those consumers remained unaware of the outcome of their hardship applications,' ASIC said on Wednesday. Justice Penelope Neskovcin said the total number of admitted contraventions between 2018 and 2023 was 'high' and therefore serious. 'These failures likely made an already challenging time in people's lives far worse,' ASIC Deputy Chair Sarah Court said. 'The hardship regime exists to help customers who are experiencing financial difficulty, often caused by significant life events such as serious illness, sudden unemployment and domestic violence. 'This penalty sends an important message to other financial institutions – customers should be at the centre of what you do.' NAB and AFSH breach sidestepped 'an important formal mechanism to protect consumers who may be experiencing hardship,' Neskovcin said when handing down her decision in court. She said that further impacts to affected customers may have been avoided if they had been given, within the prescribed timeline, 'the required notices in response to their hardship.' An ASIC hardship report in May last year found that lenders across the sector were not doing enough to support customers experiencing financial hardship. NAB and AFSH have agreed to pay the penalty and ASIC's costs. They are also required to publish an adverse publicity notice on their respective websites and to provide a copy of the notice to each customer affected by the conduct.
9 News
2 days ago
- Business
- 9 News
NAB and subsidiary ordered to pay $15.5 million after ASIC takes court action
Your web browser is no longer supported. To improve your experience update it here A big four bank and one of its subsidiaries have been ordered to pay $15.5 million for failing to respond to struggling customers. The Federal Court yesterday ordered National Australia Bank (NAB) and AFSH Nominees to pay the penalty for failing to respond to 345 hardship applications within the legally mandated 21-day timeframe. Justice Penelope Neskovcin said the reasons customers gave for their hardship included medical issues or emergencies, bereavement, family violence, family breakdown, the pandemic, business failure, natural disaster and unemployment. The Federal Court yesterday ordered National Australia Bank (NAB) and AFSH Nominees to pay the penalty for failing to respond to 345 hardship applications within the legally mandated 21-day timeframe. (SMH) She said the breached National Credit Code provisions were important to help protect customers and the number of breaches was "high, indicating the significant scope – and thereby the seriousness – of the contravening conduct". The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), which brought the action, said the penalty highlighted the seriousness of the failures to support customers facing financial hardship. "These failures likely made an already challenging time in people's lives far worse," ASIC deputy chair Sarah Court said. "This penalty sends an important message to other financial institutions – customers should be at the centre of what you do." While the customers didn't suffer any specific losses, the court made a "reasonable inference" the failure to respond might have "compounded any financial difficulty those customers considered themselves to be under and any associated distress". The parties agreed maximum penalties could have extended well into the hundreds of millions but the judge found the figures were so high as to be "practically meaningless" and accepted the proposed penalty of $15.5 million. ASIC deputy chair Sarah Court said the penalty highlighted the seriousness of the failures to support customers facing financial hardship. (Alex Ellinghausen) "ASIC will not hesitate to take action when banks and lenders fail to comply with their obligations." The court ordered NAB to pay $13 million and AFSH Nominees to $2.5 million, while also both covering ASIC's costs. It found the failures did not involve senior management at either company. The court considered the total fine, which is 0.22 per cent of NAB's net profit for 2024, to be a substantial deterrent. "The proposed penalty of $15.5 million is substantial and ought not be regarded by NAB (or a comparably sized business) as an 'acceptable cost of doing business', and it can be expected to deter any potential wrongdoer from engaging in similar contravening conduct," Neskovcin wrote. The breaches occurred between 2018 and 2023, both companies took measures to ensure they weren't repeated and NAB apologised to those affected. Sixty customers were paid an average of about $540 each for the financial and non-financial impact of the breaches. ASIC had flagged in May last year that lenders weren't doing enough to support customers in financial hardship. The law allows mortgageholders who don't think they'll be able to meet their payments to inform their lender, who must then reply or ask for more information within 21 days. "The hardship regime exists to help customers who are experiencing financial difficulty, often caused by significant life events such as serious illness, sudden unemployment and domestic violence," Court said. banks Australia finance Bendigo courts NAB Cost of Living CONTACT US
The Guardian
14-04-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Garbage bag giant fined $8.25m for falsely claiming products were recycled plastic
The company behind GLAD garbage bags has been fined $8.25m for falsely claiming the products were made from recycled ocean plastics. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission took Clorox Australia to the federal court over the misleading claims made between June 2021 and July 2023. Clorox had marketed and supplied the kitchen and garbage bags as being made from 50% recycled plastic waste collected from the ocean or sea. Instead, the bags were comprised of recycled plastic that had been collected from communities in Indonesia situated up to 50km from the shoreline. Clorox sold more than 2.2m bags during the offending period, with the price for each item generally higher than its standard range of household kitchen bags. The company discontinued supply after the consumer watchdog started investigating and the products are no longer supplied in Australia. Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter Clorox admitted the '50% ocean plastic recycled' claims displayed on the bag packaging were misleading and worked with the ACCC to reach an agreed penalty. Federal court judge Penelope Neskovcin enforced the $8.25m fine on Monday after finding Clorox had engaged in greenwashing. 'The (misleading claims) deprived consumers of the opportunity to make informed purchasing decisions, free from the false impression conveyed,' the judgment read. 'Consumers might have purchased alternative products, including from Clorox's competitors, and may have purchased products that offered substantiated environmental benefits or that were cheaper.' The judge accepted that while the conduct was serious, it was not the most serious case of environmental misrepresentations. Sign up to Afternoon Update: Election 2025 Our Australian afternoon update breaks down the key election campaign stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion 'Clorox genuinely believed the products would contribute to the reduction of plastic waste in the ocean and did not deliberately engage in a strategy to mislead consumers,' the judgment read. Justice Neskovcin noted Clorox had discussed recycled plastics with its supplier Oceanworks and considered 'ocean-bound' plastics to be a kind of ocean plastics. But the judge determined the company knew the recycled plastics were not collected or recovered directly from the ocean or sea. As part of the penalty, Clorox will have to pay $200,000 of the consumer watchdog's legal costs and publish a corrective note, explaining the offending and apologising to consumers. A Clorox Australia spokesperson said the company took seriously its obligations to package and market products with accurate claims. 'We respect this outcome and see this as an opportunity to further enhance our practices and reaffirm our commitment to offering products that help reduce environmental impact and meet consumers' evolving needs,' the statement read.
