A Tasmanian former farming couple who say their dealings with ANZ left them destitute have received an apology from a bank executive five years on.
The apology to Dimity and Michael Hirst came from ANZ's head of lending services Benjamin Steinberg, after prompting from the couple's legal counsel at the banking royal commission in Brisbane today.
The Hirsts, who were in livestock and timber production, were customers with rural finance group Landmark, which was taken over by ANZ in 2009.
They were assured by ANZ executives that nothing would change under the new arrangement.
The same year, ANZ offered to increase the loan amount to the couple, valuing their properties at almost $8 million.
Thirteen days later, an ANZ bank officer told them it was time to "put the cheque books away", with the bank revaluing their assets at $4.7 million and freezing the Hirsts' accounts on August 23.
Today, Mr Hirst took the stand at the hearing, after a request by his legal counsel was granted by commissioner Kenneth Hayne QC.
He said ANZ informed them it could no longer lend on the basis of capital sales, despite earlier endorsing their business model, news which Mr Hirst said "blindsided" them.
Watched by his tearful wife from the gallery, Mr Hirst gave an emotional account of how things fell apart for their business, with ANZ eventually forcing the sale of their assets and properties to service loan debt.
Asked by his lawyer whether they had challenged the bank's decisions and actions at the time, Mr Hirst said "there were no realistic options" to do so that they knew of.
"There was no way we could challenge what the bank did," he said. "We had no resources."
'Never once, ever shown any empathy'
Struggling with emotion, Mr Hirst told the hearing he had "managed to get a job driving a truck and my wife was [sick] in bed".
"It was tough. We really couldn't find any resources to fund a legal team to challenge what ANZ was doing."
Mr Hirst told the hearing the couple had been "very compliant right through this process, because originally we thought it was our fault".
The case was eventually mediated, but Mr Hirst said "we'd been belted to bits for five years previous to that".
"They have never once, ever shown any empathy, they have never shown any compassion, and they have never apologised.
"Where I'm from, if you do something wrong, there's nothing wrong with apologising. But these guys refused to."
Mr Steinberg, who had already been through days of questioning at the commission, was asked by legal counsel Lachlan Molesworth about the bank's dealings with the Hirsts.
"Are you aware that after five years of the Hirsts being left financially destitute, the bank to this day has not apologised to them?" Mr Molesworth asked.
Mr Steinberg said he "didn't deal with the Hirst matter, so I'm not aware whether or not an apology was made".
"May I take that opportunity now to offer that apology," Mr Steinberg said.
Mr Steinberg agreed the bank had sent the Hirsts a credit memorandum dated August 2, 2011 valuing their assets at $7.75 million and offering to increase their loans from $4.86 million to $5.1 million.
He also acknowledged a diary note made 12 days later by a bank relationship manager which estimated the value of the Hirsts' assets at just $4.7 million, 40 per cent less than the value listed in the earlier credit memorandum.
Mr Steinberg defended ANZ's internal policies in place at the time and said the discrepancy was likely because the collapse of the forestry sector occurred between 2009, when the properties were last valued, and 2011 when the credit memorandum was issued.
He told the hearing he did not believe there was any incentive for ANZ staff to overvalue the Hirsts' assets in order to lend them more money.
Other farmers in attendance at the hearing applauded Mr Hirst as he left the room, with one of them later taking the stand to tell of their own ordeal at the hands of bankers.
The royal commission will resume on Thursday.
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