Westpac admits NZ credit card breach

Westpac will pay back $NZ3.7m to New Zealand customers after admitting it failed to meet credit card rules.

Westpac has admitted consumer credit law breaches in New Zealand. Picture: AAP

Westpac has agreed to pay back $NZ3.7m to customers in New Zealand following a settlement with the local regulator for breaches of its consumer credit act.

A statement from the NZ Commerce Commission said Westpac said Westpac had admitted it had breached the Credit Contract and Consumer Finance Act by failing to provide key information to credit card customers before they entered contracts.

“Due to a process error, when Westpac posted credit cards to 19,000 new personal credit card customers between May 2017 and March 2018, it failed to provide the required initial disclosure of their credit terms,” the commission said in a statement.

The Commerce Commission said Westpac reported the issue in March 2018. High Court proceedings were the then filed against the bank in July last year.

“As part of the settlement, Westpac has agreed to admit in court that it breached its legal obligations,” the commission said in its statement.

Westpac had already written off $100,000 owed by some affected customers, the commission said.

Westpac shares were up 0.98 per cent at $25.22 at lunchtime on Tuesday.