ANZ has struck a deal with insurers over two infamous frozen investment funds that sees it receive about A$85 million.
In its latest General Disclosure Statement ANZ Bank New Zealand Limited says; "In December 2013, the Bank reached a conditional agreement with insurers to settle its claim in relation to the Bank’s former involvement in the ING Diversified Yield Fund and the ING Regular Income Fund for payment of AUD85 million, subject to taxation."
An ANZ NZ spokesman would only add that this was "the settlement with insurers around this issue a few years ago. We are not able to go into further detail."
Interest.co.nz had asked whether this brings the final curtain down on the frozen funds issue from ANZ's perspective, or whether there are other issues or court cases yet to be resolved, which insurers the conditional agreement has been reached with, and what are the conditions of the agreement?
The two funds in question were frozen in March 2008 affecting around 15,000 investors. In 2010 ANZ and ING settled with the Commerce Commission agreeing to pay $45 million. The consumer watchdog had investigated alleged breaches of the Fair Trading Act relating to the marketing and promotion of the funds by ANZ and ING.
ANZ subsequently struck a deal with ING Group to buy ING’s 51% shareholdings in the ANZ-ING wealth management and life insurance joint ventures in Australia and New Zealand for A$1.76 billion. The deal gave ANZ licence to use the ING brand until November 2010. The name was changed to OnePath, although ANZ's funds management and KiwiSaver business is now known as ANZ Investments and just the life insurance operation is branded OnePath.
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