Westpac New Zealand Limited has admitted to misleading customers entitled to advertised discounts as well as overcharging some of its business customers.

Westpac made the admissions in civil proceedings brought by the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) at the High Court in Auckland.

Westpac’s breaches of the fair dealing provisions under the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013 (FMCA) affected a total of 24,621 customers and resulted in $6.35 million in overcharges.

Westpac admitted having made misrepresentations in respect of the following historic issues:

• Customers entitled to various benefits under Westpac’s Employee, Gold and Platinum (EGP) packages failed to receive the advertised discounts
• Personal and business banking customers failed to receive benefits under one of Westpac’s other advertised packaged arrangements
• Westpac failed to honour agreed pricing for business customers who held a “Business Transact Account”.

The FMA and Westpac have agreed to resolve the proceedings on terms acceptable to all parties. A penalty hearing before the High Court will take place in due course.