ANZ National Bank Limited and ING (NZ) have agreed to pay an additional $45 million to the investors in the ING Diversified Fund and ING Regular Income Fund.
The two institutions had paid the investors $533 million earlier.
The announcement, made on June 22, followed a settlement that the two institutions reached with the Commerce Commission and the Securities Commission.
The settlement covered the marketing and promotion of the two Funds but did not satisfy all the investors, who said they had sustained substantial losses.
The Commerce Commission will determine the method of payment shortly.
It had earlier investigated whether the sale of the two Funds breached the Fair Trading Act through misrepresentation of the risk involved.
The Securities Commission said it was satisfied with the settlement.
The Funds collected about $700 million from 15,000 investors before being frozen in March 2008. The Commission said it had found the degree of investment risk stated by ANZ New Zealand was misleading, and there was sufficient evidence to prosecute the bank.
But it accepted the new settlement ($45 million) as the best outcome for investors and announced that it would not take any further action.
ING (NZ) has undertaken to complete a review of its relevant processes and procedures. ANZ National and ING (NZ) agreed they may have breached the Act.
An ANZ National Bank Limited statement said that the Commerce Commission had raised a number of issues about the funds but acknowledged that ANZ and ING (NZ) did not have the opportunity to test, or defend, these from a legal perspective.
Acting Chief Executive Steven Fyfe said although the Bank did not agree with all the views of the Commission, it had decided to settle the matter to avoid a lengthy court process.
“We apologise to those investors who felt we had misinformed them. Our priority has always been to assist investors, which is why we made available more than $500 million before this settlement. Investments for many New Zealanders have been affected by the global financial crisis but few financial institutions have stood by their customers to this extent,” he said.
ANZ National Bank Limited said it had adequate provision for the settlement.
