(Reuters) – Australia’s regulator of the market Monday announced that it has initiated civil penalties proceedings against New Zealand Banking Group and Australia for allegedly misleading its customers regarding their credit card accounts.

The regulator stated that between May 2016 to November 2018 approximately 165.750 ANZ clients received cash advance fees and interest when withdrawing money or transferring funds from their credit cards accounts. This was based upon an inaccurate account balance.

According to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, (ASIC), single customers could be charged thousands of dollars for fees.

Sarah Court, ASIC Deputy Chairman stated: “This alleged misconduct resulted from system errors within ANZ”

ASIC stated that although the lender had paid out A$10m ($7.16m) in compensation to affected customers, it was seeking court orders to remedy customers wrongly accused since 2018.

ANZ has not yet responded to a request of comment.

($1 = 1.3968 Australian dollars)