The High Court has agreed that the appeal from the Federal Court decision in Andrews v ANZ Bank be removed to it and not be dealt with by the Federal Court Full Court. (Background)

This will speed up a decision on the characterisation of fees as a penalty.

Apart from ANZ Bank, class actions have also been issued against Citibank, Commonwealth Bank, NAB, Westpac, St George, BankSA and BankWest.

The four other banks against which proceedings are proposed to be issued are Bank of Queensland, Bendigo Bank, HSBC, and Suncorp.