Federal Court penalty – Introducer Payments Program
National Australia Bank (NAB) today acknowledges the $15 million penalty imposed by the Federal Court in proceedings brought by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).
The Federal Court proceedings commenced against NAB in August 2019 relate to the NAB Introducer Payments Program and alleged breaches of sections 31 and 47 of the National Credit Consumer Protection Act between 2013 and 2016. NAB admitted certain breaches, which related to receiving information from introducers that went beyond their remit of ‘spot and refer’.
NAB Group Executive, Legal and Commercial Services, Sharon Cook, said:
“NAB has acknowledged that the Introducer Payments Program had inherent risks and ultimately fell short of customer and community expectations. We want customers to have the confidence to come to NAB because of the products and services we provide – not because a third party received a payment to recommend us.
“We ended the Introducer Payments Program in October 2019 and in November 2017 we established a remediation program, which has paid about $5 million to impacted customers.”