In August, Australian law firm Maurice Blackburn filed lawsuits against NAB, Westpac, St.George, Citibank, Bank of South Australia and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, citing late credit card payments were illegitimate.
According to Maurice Blackburn, the entire class action could be worth up to A$250m ($217m).
NAB claims that court application represents a first but significant step towards reaching a potential settlement.
NAB chief executive officer Andrew Thorburn said: "NAB is doing this because we believe this is the right thing to do for our customers and our business.
If the class is opened, customers willing to join the NAB Bank fees class action and participate in any potential settlement will be required to register.
The registration process is scheduled to be managed by Financial Redress, a subsidiary of Bentham IMF, which is funding the bank fees class actions against all of the major Australian banks.
Maurice Blackburn claims that nearly 30,000 NAB customers have been hit with late credit cards fees, while Financial Redress noted that as many as 272,593 accounts have been registered for the class action against nine different Australian banks.
Maurice Blackburn spokesman Cameron Scott said: "We have been working for some time with NAB to resolve the bank fees issue for its customers, but these negotiations are ongoing and we won’t be elaborating on the settlement process at this stage.
"We would encourage all banks involved to follow NAB’s example to negotiate in good faith, to resolve a fair outcome for all banking customers that have unfairly been charged these fees."
Image: National Australia Bank Tower in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Photo: Bidgee.
