the case for overseas investors, whose repayments have been hit by delays once again. Luke Reynolds is one such investor who is based in Australia. He told Stuff that he received an email titled “Confirmation of Bonus Bonds payment” on 14 December. “We’re confirming that we’ve made a payment … to the overseas bank account you provided us,” the email read. “This payment was NZD$1.10 per Bonus Bond held. An additional payment may be made at a later date when the wind-up is finalised, if there are any remaining funds to be distributed.”
However, the money hadn’t arrived and when he checked with ANZ, Reynolds was informed that there have been delays in a small number of international payments, although customers have received a payment confirmation and that the bank is working as fast as it could to resolve the matter.
Later, on 29 December, ANZ contacted Reynolds to inform him that since the payment was over $1,000 he had not left ANZ to his Australian bank yet. He was told to expect the funds sometime in January, and Reynolds says that his brother is facing the same dilemma.
“We apologise to those who have been affected by this delay,” an ANZ spokeswoman said, adding that the matter was a result of the bank’s obligations in relation to financial crime monitoring. “While domestic payments and most international payments were processed before Christmas, some payments to international customers are taking a little longer. This is because some larger payments require additional steps to process due to financial crime monitoring obligations,” she said.
Both New Zealand and Australia have stringent laws designed to make it difficult for terrorists and criminals to launder money or conduct other financial crimes. Over the recent years, several banks in the two nations have faced huge fines and have had their reputations damaged for failing to identify and report suspicious transactions.
In September, TSB Bank based was fined $3.5 million by the High Court for breaches of anti-money laundering laws and a month earlier, RBNZ issued a warning to Westpac in New Zealand for failing to report several suspicious transactions.
