Customers protested today outside the ANZ Tauranga Branch in Spring Street.


Protestors outside the ANZ in Tauranga.

'Ripped off big time,” is how Bruce Malpas describes his treatment by the bank, after he lost his savings because the bank persuaded him and other customers to transfer funds from term deposits into an ING ‘moderate risk' investment account.
The bank failed to disclose that ANZ had 49 per cent ownership of ING, and that ANZ receives a commission for providing ING with customers, says Bruce.
When ING froze the fund last March, preventing customers withdrawing their investment, the $1 units dropped to an estimated 80 cents. Since then the investors have watched the value drop to just 20 cents.
'That's what they are telling us, but I personally suspect it is a ruse to make us accept the offer they have come up with,” says Bruce.
ING is now offering 60 cents in the dollar, but only if investors also sign away rights to continue any legal claims or to take or benefit from any legal action in connection with the funds.
'It's like bank robbery, but it's the bank that is robbing its customers,” says Bruce.
The ANZ investors have formed Frozen Funds Groups. There are now 14 around the country.
They have complained to the Banking Ombudsman, the Commerce Commission and the Securities Commission, and are awaiting a response, hopefully before ING's July 13 deadline.