ANZ New Zealand has been slapped with a NZ$280,000 fine by the High Court in Auckland for misleading customers over credit card insurance - a product the bank no longer offers.

The case, which was brought by the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) in June last year, centred on over 300 customers charged for credit card repayment insurance (CCRI) which offered them no cover or benefit or was a duplicate policy.

The policies were sold between 1997 and 2018.

For many of those ineligible to claim it was because they were too old to do so. Their policies did not allow a claim to be made once the policyholder reached the age of 65 or, in some cases, 75. However, ANZ did not cancel the policies and continued charging premiums.

Other customers were sold second policies, which offered them no extra cover, but were charged extra premiums.

ANZ self-reported the issue, and paid NZ$440,000 in compensation to affected customers.

Justice Matthew Muir criticised ANZ's delay in self-reporting but said this was mitigated by the  bank's constructive engagement with the regulator since.

But he said the CCRI problems were, to an extent, "hiding in plain view" and could have been identified much earlier.

"ANZ simply was not looking or looking adequately in the right places. That is a process or systems failure and as such general deterrence is a relevant consideration."

ANZ New Zealand stopped selling CCRI in 2019.