The Federal Court has penalised ANZ A$10 million in relation to its Home Loan Introducer Program, a scheme wound down in late 2018. ANZ and ASIC made joint submissions on facts and penalties to the court. ANZ admitted to a series of contraventions of the National Consumer Credit Protection Act in relation to 50 home loan applications “and has agreed to conduct a review of its policies and procedures around its Introducer Program to ensure ongoing compliance with credit legislation” ASIC said. Justice Michael O’Bryan delayed publication of the court’s reasons for a judgment handed down on Friday, but it appears ANZ may have successfully negotiated a (mild) narrowing of ASIC’s case against the bank. In November 2021, ASIC’s outline of the background to this case said that between November 2015 to June 2020, ANZ breached its general conduct obligations as an Australian Credit Licence holder by failing to take reasonable steps to ensure its representatives did not conduct business with unlicensed third parties and thereby failed to engage in credit activities efficiently, honestly and fairly. At the time, ASIC said it was seeking orders that ANZ engage an independent expert to conduct a review of its home loan customer referral arrangements. This was missing from the Justice O’Bryan’s orders, which were published on Friday. In October 2020, NAB paid a $15 million penalty for dealing with unlicenced home loan introducers. In 2019, a former NAB branch manager in Sydney was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment to be served by way of Intensive Corrections Order for making false and misleading statements to NAB in relation to 24 home loan applications.