The Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ASX: ANZ) share price has been on form again on Thursday despite a spot of potentially bad news.
In afternoon trade the banking giant's shares are up 0.9% to $27.89.
What has happened today?
This morning the bank revealed that the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has advised that it intends to commence civil penalty proceedings against the bank.
These proceedings are in relation to the charging of fees for periodical payments in certain circumstances prior to February 2016.
The release explains that the fees were the subject of a class action which was settled in December 2018 for $1.5 million, pending court approval.
The bank was also quick to point out that it has already provided for approximately $50 million in customer remediation payments for this matter, of which more than $28 million has already been paid to customers impacted since 2008.
Nonetheless, ANZ understands that ASIC intends to seek pecuniary penalties in respect of 1.3 million occasions where the fees were applied.
While ANZ is still considering the matters raised by ASIC, it categorically denies any deliberate wrongdoing and intends to vigorously defend any such allegation.
The Australian Government Solicitor has informed ANZ it will file documents in the Federal Court on July 29. ANZ advised that it will not be providing any further comments given the matter is expected to be before the courts.
At this stage it is unclear what level of penalty will be imposed on the bank, but judging by its share price performance today, I think it is fair to say that investors don't appear to believe it will be material.
ANZ is the second best performer amongst the big four banks today behind the Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC) share price which is up 1.4% this afternoon.
