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Bank backflips on redraw reduction
ME Bank has backed down on its decision to reduce the redraw limits on some of its legacy home loan products.
Bank backflips on redraw reduction
ME Bank has backed down on its decision to reduce the redraw limits on some of its legacy home loan products.
Just yesterday, nestegg reported that ME Bank had been backpedaling since it was revealed that it had reduced the amount borrowers could redraw from some of their mortgage products without informing customers.
According to the non-major lender, the changes affected around 4 per cent of the bank’s customers on legacy home loan products.
A previous statement from ME Bank regarding the change had outlined that the adjustment “was made with the best of intentions – to protect some customers from the risk of redrawing too much money, which could have inadvertently put them behind their repayment schedule”.
Acknowledging that the decision and subsequent change was poorly communicated and has upset customers, ME Bank CEO Jamie McPhee has now stated that some customers have indicated they want their redraw limits changed back to what they were before.
“We are going to do that.”
“We are deeply sorry; we were trying to do the right thing, but we went about it the wrong way,” he added.
The CEO “would like to reassure customers that at no point did the bank ‘remove funds from customer accounts’ or ‘transfer’ any customer funds”.
He reiterated that the adjustment was also not done for liquidity reasons.
“Our priority now is to help, support and service our customers. We recognise that we need to do better – we can and we will.”
The bank has set up a dedicated hotline for any customer who would like their redraw limits changed back or, if they prefer, they can request it online, Mr McPhee noted.
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