Bank had to cover $26,000
A man whose neighbour stole $26,000 via his debit card failed in his efforts to get compensation from his bank.
The man complained to the Banking Ombudsman.
It heard that the neighbour spent the $26,000 over five days.
When the man discovered the card was lost, he notified the bank, which cancelled it. But it was too late.
The bank said that because the offender had used the pin number correctly, it could not help and referred him to police.
The police identified who was responsible but that person subsequently disappeared.
The customer went back to the bank which continued to deny it was liable for the money.
The ombudsman’s office found there was no question the customer had not been the person who carried out, or authorised, the transactions.
‘‘We were not satisfied the bank had discharged the onus on it to show [the customer] had breached the terms and conditions of his card by failing to take reasonable care of it and his pin. [The customer] had occasionally driven the neighbour to the supermarket and she might have overlooked him entering his pin.
‘‘Furthermore, we were satisfied it was reasonable for [him] not to have noticed his card was missing for five days, given the usual pattern of use of his card.
‘‘We recommended the bank reimburse the loss. We were also critical of the bank’s failure to consider what the terms and conditions stated about liability during its internal investigation of the complaint.’’
The bank agreed and the customer was given the money.
The case was just one of the 3198 complaints dealt with by the scheme in the most recent financial year. Ombudsman Nicola Sladden said it had been a ‘‘very big year’’ – complaints were up 21 per cent on the year before as bank conduct and culture were increasingly put in the spotlight.
‘‘The way customer complaints are managed, both inside and outside of banks, is deeply grounded in conduct and culture.
‘‘There are real and important changes afoot, and there is more to be done,’’ she said.
‘‘We have continued to make an impact by sharing more lessons from our cases, following up on systemic issues, strengthening our consumer and industry engagement, and engaging in a large number of policy initiatives to share a consumer perspective.
‘‘Banks came under closer scrutiny this year in the wake of the Australian royal commission into banking and reviews by New Zealand regulators. We said we had not seen the same type of systemic abuse in the cases we see but we know we only see the tip of the complaints iceberg.’’
Lending was the most common cause of complaints, followed by bank accounts and payment systems.
ANZ was the subject of the largest proportion of complaints, at 784 or 19.3 per cent of all cases.
But it is the country’s largest bank, with 30.3 per cent of all banking assets.
ASB was second-most-complained about, with 11.6 per cent of complaints and 19 per cent of banking assets.
The ombudsman scheme reported a 118 per cent increase in the number of cases involving scams. Only 4 per cent of all cases went all the way to a formal investigation.