ASB's Fair Conduct Programme

When we design or change a product, we consider who the product is for and how our customers' needs and objectives will be met.

We also take steps, when our products and services are provided to you through an intermediary, to make sure the products and services are distributed in line with the fair conduct principle.

Anyone who interacts with ASB customers about our products and services on our behalf is required to follow policies and procedures that support compliance with the fair conduct principle.

We regularly review both our products and the way we offer these to check they continue to meet the changing needs and goals of our customers. When we identify something we should do better, we act to remedy this in a reasonable time.

The design of our products and services, and how these are provided, include the consideration of customers in vulnerable circumstances. We recognise that a range of factors can lead to someone potentially experiencing vulnerability and we have processes in place to consider and provide the extra support, care, or flexibility these customers may need where feasible.

We understand that there are some circumstances which may mean our customers require extra support or flexibility – we call this Extra Care.

So that we can support you, we encourage you to tell us about anything you might need help or support with.

If you do need Extra Care, we can apply an extra care status to your customer profile. This means that specific information about the extra care you might need can be recorded to reduce the need for you to repeat your situation or circumstances each time you contact us. You can talk to us about this option by calling our Contact Centre on 0800 803 804 or talking to one of our people in branch.

Our responsibilities as a bank, and to our customers, means risk and compliance management are core functions of our day-to-day operations. We set clear roles and responsibilities for identifying and managing operational and compliance risks and have processes in place to enable senior management and the Board to govern and have oversight of the effectiveness of managing compliance obligations. We keep records relating to how we identify, monitor, and manage conduct risks to demonstrate how we have complied with the fair conduct principle.

We proactively monitor, assess, and analyse our risks and obligations, and put mitigations in place to minimise the risk of failing to meet the fair conduct principle. We manage our technology systems to minimise any disruption and protect customer information.

Complaints help us to identify and correct unfair treatment of individual customers and are vital in helping us address concerns and improve our service. We monitor complaints for trends and to identify any systemic issues. We act to identify, investigate, and resolve customer concerns where a resolution is required.

If you have a complaint, please let us know so we can try to resolve the issue right away.
You can do this in several ways:

•    contact your relationship manager or the manager of the department that handled the matter
•    tell a staff member at one of our branches
•    call our Contact Centre on 0800 803 804 or
•    use our complaints form available from any of our branches or at asb.co.nz.

If your complaint relates to ASB Securities, you can contact the Online and Telephone Trading team on 0800 272 732 or (09) 377 8930.

We are also a member of the Banking Ombudsman Dispute Resolution Scheme (or Financial Services Complaints Limited if your complaint relates to ASB Securities). These are free, independent dispute resolution services. If your complaint is not resolved by us, these services may help resolve your complaint.

You can contact these schemes the following ways:

The people who work for ASB, including our intermediaries and those acting on our behalf, are rewarded for their performance. Our reward systems and incentives for our people are designed to recognise performance in line with our purpose, strategy, and values, and drive the right behaviours.

We have a clear code of conduct that outlines the behaviour we expect from our people. This includes the identification of actual, potential, or perceived conflicts of interest and allowing our people to raise concerns through our whistleblower process.

To give you the right support, our people need continued training, development, support, and supervision. We provide training on our products and services relevant to their role, and how our FCP supports the fair treatment of our customers. ASB relies on a number of methods to check that our people have a reasonable understanding of the learning they are required to complete.

We have processes in place to make sure our people have the required competencies or attributes to perform their role, and to check those in customer facing roles are supporting the fair conduct principle. When our code of conduct, or the processes that support the fair conduct principle, have not been followed, we take action to identify the cause, providing additional training where appropriate and remedy any errors.

Our written communications with customers about our products are designed to provide you with information you can understand and take action on. These communications are prepared to ensure they are clear, concise, timely, and effective.

We will take all reasonable steps to comply with our FCP and if we ever identify that something is not working, we will work to address this.

The ASB Fair Conduct Programme is effective from 31 March 2025 and is required to be reviewed annually.