The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) reports that major banks have made errors involving mortgage offset accounts, resulting in some borrowers paying more interest than they should. In its review, ASIC says banks failed to get basic offset-account requirements right across a large number of home loans. The regulator’s findings indicate that lenders have repaid $55 million to hundreds of thousands of customers over the past two years as remediation for offset failures. ASIC says these overcharges can occur when borrowers are not receiving the correct offset treatment, meaning they are effectively “overcharged” interest during the period when the error persists. ASIC also warns the total remediation amount is likely to increase as banks continue fixing accounts and completing compensation processes. Multiple outlets report that ASIC’s report follows an examination of more than 200,000 home loans and includes an expectation that affected customers may be owed additional amounts beyond those already repaid. ASIC’s stance is that banks need to address the issues and improve controls to prevent future offset errors.