New Zealand home owners hoping for compensation from their bank after being stung with high mortgage break fees may be out of luck after an investigation by the competition watchdog found most banks were charging reasonable fees. The Commerce Commission began investigating the banks and a number of financing companies in October 2008, after complaints were made about banks charging large fees for breaking fixed-rate mortgages after interest rates plummeted in late 2008 and early 2009. Yesterday it released the results of the 18-month investigation which found the ASB, SBS Bank, BNZ, National Bank, ANZ and GE were likely to have charged reasonable fees.
