This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The corporate regulator has launched court action against the National Australia Bank over the fees-for-no-service scandal in the start of a legal onslaught that could cost the financial services industry up to $1bn.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission on Thursday said it was seeking a civil penalty under the federal court action against NAB superannuation trustees Nulis and MLC Nominees.

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The banking royal commission last month heard that a super trustee deducted fees from deceased members’ accounts “for a period” and prior hearings exposed similar scandals in the area of financial advice.

n May, the royal commission heard that a Commonwealth Bank of Australia subsidiary, Count Financial, continued charging clients fees after they died – in one case for more than a decade.

It is the first court action Asic has launched over the scandal that is expected to lead to as much as $1bn being repaid to customers, and comes despite NAB agreeing to pay more than $100m in compensation to super customers.

In a court document filed on Thursday, Asic said NAB’s conduct “promoted inefficiencies in the operation of Australia's regulated and taxpayer-supported superannuation arrangements, thereby exposing the wider Australian public to financial detriment as well as eroding consumer trust and confidence””

ASIC's court action alleges NULIS and MLC Nominees, as NAB's current and former superannuation trustee, misled members of MLC MasterKey Super products.

In a statement on Thursday, it alleged the trustees deducted $33m in plan service fees from 220,000 members of MLC MasterKey Business and MLC MasterKey Personal Super who did not have a plan adviser.

It said NAB also deducted $67m in plan service fees from 300,000 members of MLC MasterKey Personal Super where plan advisers were not required to provide services and members did not receive services or any services they could not otherwise obtain for free.

Asic said the commencement of the civil penalty action was part of its investigations into fees-for-no-service failures in the financial services industry.

After paying $34.7 million in remediation last year, NAB is now dumping the plan service fee with NULIS to pay another $87 million in refunds and compensation to 205,000 current Masterkey personal super members.