ING funds ruling to be made next year

The Commerce Commission says it will not make a ruling on its investigation into the frozen ING funds until next year.

The commission began investigating the Regular Income Fund and Diversified Yield Fund in December last year.

Investors had hoped to know by Christmas whether legal action against fund provider ING and its owner ANZ would go ahead over allegations of a breach in the Fair Trading Act.

More than 13,000 investors had their money locked into the funds in March last year. In July, most investors accepted a settlement agreement funded by both ING and the ANZ, which at the time owned 49 per cent but has since become the full owners.

A condition of the settlement was that investors make no claims or take any legal action involving the funds leaving the commission as one of the few avenues for legal action.

A spokeswoman for the commission said a decision would not be made in time for Christmas.

She said the investigation was taking some time because the situation was very complicated.

Meanwhile, investors who put money into the funds on the advice of the ANZ bank and applied for additional compensation from the bank are mulling over their offers.

Banking ombudsman Deborah Battel said she believed around two thirds of those who had applied had received their compensation letters.

Her office was getting about 10 calls a day from ANZ investors wanting to know when they would get their letter and/or asking for advice on whether to accept their compensation offer.

The office planned to take on extra staff to help deal with the queries.

Investors have 21 days from when they receive the offer to accept it.