National Australia Bank fined $15.5m for failing to respond to hardship claim

NAB and subsidiary AFSH are required to publish an adverse publicity notice.

The National Australia Bank (NAB) and its subsidiary AFSH Nominees have been fined $15.5m for failing to respond to customer hardship applicants.

NAB and AFSH are also required to publish an adverse publicity notice on their respective websites, and to provide a copy of the notice to each customer affected by the conduct.

Between 2018-2023, NAB and AFSH failed to respond to 345 hardship applications within the 21-day timeframe required by law, the Federal Court found.

This resulted in consumers remaining unaware of the outcome of their applications.

“These failures likely made an already challenging time in people’s lives far worse,” said ASIC Deputy Chair Sarah Court in the online post announcing the fine.

“This penalty sends an important message to other financial institutions – customers should be at the centre of what you do,” Court said.

NAB and AFSH have agreed to pay ASIC’s costs.