56 CIMB customers seek court action against Bank Negara

 

An application for a judicial review of Bank Negara has been filed by a group of CIMB customers.

GEORGE TOWN: A group of 56 account holders of CIMB Bank have filed a suit seeking a court order for Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) to provide details of its investigation into a “duplicate credit” error at CIMB earlier this year.

The complainants are seeking an order from the High Court in Kuala Lumpur to compel the central bank to provide an update of the investigation into CIMB and to explain why there was a delay in the investigation.

An application for a judicial review was filed today. Those affected are also asking for an order for BNM to start investigating CIMB on the duplicate errors within three days of a court order.

When contacted, lawyer Nazmi Zaini said the complainants filed for a judicial review as the central bank had refused to entertain complaints from them or give an update on their complaints.

He said the account holders expect BNM not to act unfairly by refusing to investigate their complaints as they continue to suffer irreparable harm and distress from a debt recovery exercise carried out by the bank, among others.

“The judicial review is crucial since BNM had said CIMB ought to ensure that ‘recovery measures it was taking would not burden customers, especially those unaware that the excess money had flowed into their accounts’,” he told FMT.

In February, CIMB said a processing error related to a specific third-party financial remittance service had led to transfers made to customers being accidentally credited twice.

The bank had then said it was trying to recover these duplicate sums. However, it denied claims of wrongdoing and said it would defend itself.

The bank said that due to the duplicate credits, the account holders had been “unjustly enriched” at its expense, with account holders not alerting the bank about the duplicate amounts in their accounts.

CIMB said it was allowed to recover the duplicate sums as it was legally and contractually entitled to do so.

To date, 3,621 persons or entities have sued CIMB for negligence in three separate suits.

FMT has sought a response from BNM. - FMT