Bank of Queensland has released a statement saying it is prepared to defend any proceedings brought against it in relation to certain customers who held its Money Market Deposit Account. Last week Shine Lawyers announced that it was preparing a class action against BOQ on behalf of customers who lost money "after the bank failed to prevent transactions on their accounts." Customers will allege that transactions were made at the instruction of the failed financial planner Brad Sherwin and his staff, which were contrary to the bank's obligation to them. Years of strife for UK banks over the mis-selling of Payment Protection Insurance will soon have run its course. The Financial Conduct Authority on Friday said it "would be assessing whether there was a need for further intervention in PPI complaints handling" and that it would set out its views and any next steps by the northern summer. National Australia Bank's UK subsidiaries, like the wider industry, has made repeated provisions to cater to refunds it must grant customers who were persuaded to buy the line of insurance. Mortgage aggregator eChoice has sold a A$125 million portfolio of loans to Columbus Capital. eChoice said in a statement that the loans were managed by its Firstfolio Capital business and were non-core. The sale is worth about $2 million and will also release about $6 million of cash collateral. eChoice said funds from the sale would be used to reduce senior debt. Columbus Capital said in a statement that the acquisition complemented its recent acquisition of the Origin loan portfolio. ANZ will set stricter rules on lending to the coal industry, the Australian Financial Review reports. The bank has made a number of climate change commitments, including A$10 billion in new lending for greenhouse gas reduction over five years and a ban on lending to new coal projects that do not use the latest clean coal technology. The bank is Australia's largest lender to the fossil fuel industry. ANZ has disclosed that 1700 of its staff breached its code of conduct in the last financial year, Fairfax Media reports. The bank revealed the breaches in a submission to a Senate committee inquiry into foreign bribery. The breaches included conflict of interest, bullying, fraud and email misuse, and resulted in 550 people leaving the bank.