In a previous post I noted how IT “glitches” have resulted in customer account charging errors and consequent Credit Code breaches.

ASIC has now announced that MyState Bank Limited (MyState) has refunded more than $230,000 in over-charged interest and fees to more than 1,040 customers with mortgage offset accounts.

Following a customer complaint, and after a review of its accounts, MyState found that some customers:

• Did not have their offset accounts linked to their mortgages – meaning that they were over-charged interest;
• Were charged ‘offset account’ fees after their loan had been discharged or changed to a kind that could not be linked to an offset account.

This was due to errors in MyState’s manual administration processes, including failures to link loans and offset accounts, and failures to deal with offset accounts when loans were switched or discharged.

The matter was reported to ASIC by MyState.

According to ASIC, MyState has worked with ASIC to refund customers and improve its internal processes, including by ensuring employees have appropriate account administration training.