Westpac acknowledges legal proceedings on financial hardships negligence
2023.09.04 16:15
© Reuters. A woman exits the ground floor of an office building with Westpac logo amidst the easing of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) restrictions in the Central Business District of Sydney, Australia, June 3, 2020. REUTERS/Loren Elliott
(Reuters) – Australia’s Westpac Banking (NYSE:) Corp on Tuesday said it was aware of legal proceedings launched by the country’s corporate regulator alleging the lender’s failure to assist its customers with financial hardship notices between 2015 and 2022.
The legal proceedings are linked with a “technology failure” in which the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) claimed 229 applications for financial hardship assistance logged between 2015 and 2022 were not evaluated within 21 days, Westpac said in an email response to Reuters.
“This error meant we didn’t provide some of our customers with the help they needed. For this, we are deeply sorry,” said Westpac Group Chief Information Officer Scott Collary.
Under Section 72 of Australia’s National Credit Code, an individual with overdue payments can request a change to the terms of their credit contract on the grounds of financial hardship, and creditors are expected to provide a response in writing within 21 days of being informed.
Over the alleged period of breach, Westpac received about 630,000 applications for hardship assistance, the company told Reuters.
