The bonus bonus scheme is now in liquidation, investors can no longer cash out

The bonus bond scheme has now entered liquidation mode and bondholders can no longer cash in on their investments.

Around $ 2 billion has already been redeemed by around 170,000 clients of the scheme.

It had $ 3.3 billion invested with around 1.2 million bondholders when ANZ announced on August 25 that it would stop making new investments and seek to liquidate the scheme due to low interest rates that reduce the prize pool.

ANZ Investment Services, which runs the scheme, said the settlement began today at 9pm on Saturday.

During the liquidation, the supervisor and the manager will calculate and distribute the remaining funds to the investors.

Final liquidation distributions cannot be paid until the time deposits in which the scheme invests have expired or otherwise been made, final liquidation expenses have been confirmed, and the ANZ has the bank account details. bondholders to make payments.

Ben Kelleher, managing director of commercial and retail banking at ANZ, said he was confident that the remaining bondholders would receive a portion of the reserves above their original investment.

“While the process to confirm the final amount each bondholder is entitled to is complicated and may take twelve months or more, we expect to distribute a large portion of what each bondholder is entitled to before this.

“If this happens, the bondholders will receive their full distributions in more than one payment.”

Trade requests received before 9 pm on October 31 would continue to be processed and paid.

The bonus bonds were released by the New Zealand government through the post office in 1970 and then the scheme was bought by the ANZ bank.

Instead of earning interest on their investments, savers entered a monthly drawing to win a prize of up to $ 1 million, but the odds of winning a prize were low and getting worse.

Last year’s annual report said the average odds were one in 32,294 of winning a prize in a given month, up from one in 26,875 in its financial year 2018.

It has also come under fire in recent years for its high levels of fees compared to investor payments.