Recall from last month:
Slater and Gordon has widened its class action case against National Australia Bank to include people who were sold personal loan insurance.
The firm’s class action issued in 2018 on the back of the Banking Royal Commission argues thousands of NAB customers were sold worthless credit card insurance they would never have been eligible to claim against.
Slater and Gordon said on Friday it was granted leave by the Federal Court to expand the claim beyond credit card customers to include people who were sold a similar type of insurance for personal loans.
A NAB spokesperson said the bank encouraged any customers with questions regarding products and services to talk to their banker, or to contact NAB via a dedicated hotline established for credit card insurance.
Slater and Gordon principal lawyer Andrew Paull said that NAB pushed its insurance products on some of the most vulnerable in the community, including the unemployed, those on government benefits or people with existing disabilities.
“NAB knows that using pushy tactics and pressuring vulnerable customers into buying worthless insurance was wrong,” Mr Paull said.
“Apologies are not enough. Slater and Gordon calls on NAB to address the legitimate grievances of its customers, who were subjected to pressure sales tactics and sold insurance products that were of little or no value.”
NAB customers who paid for personal loan insurance premiums since June 13, 2013, may be eligible to join the class action.
Now today:
Around 400,000 National Australia Bank customers have been sent notices from the Federal Court today advising that they may be eligible to be part of a class action against the bank, brought by law firm Slater and Gordon.
The class action is representing NAB customers, alleging they were sold junk credit card and personal loan insurance that was of little or no value.
It is one of the largest court-ordered notices in Australian legal history, the firm noting that at least one in every 50 adult Australians will receive the notice.
“NAB knows that using pushy tactics and pressuring vulnerable customers into buying worthless insurance was wrong,” said Slater and Gordon practice group leader Andrew Paull.
“They did it anyway, and collected millions of dollars in unwarranted premiums in the process. If you are – or have been – a NAB customer in the past, keep an eye out for this letter which will advise you of how to register your interest in participating in the class action.”
Which may segue with the previous report from Domain about secret minutes of NAB meetings five months out from the royal commission:
…The EY team needed to know what [Ken] Henry thought so it could help the bank prepare a report, required by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), that would assess NAB’s performance on risk management and culture.
Startlingly, the chairman said he was “confident” the bank was still selling products that would trigger compensation for customers in the future. Confidential minutes of the interview said he “highlighted an example of SMSF [self managed super fund] borrowing to invest in managed funds”.
…Underlining the whistleblower’s concern was that much of what was discovered in that review, including what Dr Henry and others said in meetings with EY, did not make it into EY’s draft report.
Fear not! Our oligarchs are onto it. What we need to fix this is more “self-regulation” and “principles based” regulation not actual rules like clawbacks, jail time, no bailouts and higher capital requirements, which would obviously be far less effective in curtailing bad behaviour.
Pip, pip!
