BNZ paying back $3.8m to customers

More than 10,000 Bank of New Zealand customers are to receive a payout totalling $3.8 million to make up for errors it made relating to loan documents.

The bank said it discovered the errors after reviewing its systems following changes to the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act, with some errors going back to 2015.

The problems include the bank not sending out documentation to customers quickly enough when customers changed their accounts or sending out documents with missing or incorrect information like total interest and total payments.

Some new credit card or home loan accounts were set up with old documentation because the rules changed before they were finished processing.

BNZ said customers would receive a refund on some of the interest and fees they had been charged with the average refund around $375 although some would be as low as 1 cent.

Impacted customers would have their refund automatically deposited into their account or have a cheque posted to them in the next few days.

BNZ chief executive Angie Mentis apologised for the errors.

“No customers were overcharged, but we didn’t get it 100 per cent right.

“While mistakes do happen from time-to-time, finding those mistakes and fixing them is simply the right thing to do for our customers,” Mentis said.