NZ’s Tower Insurance and ANZ National Bank have settled their long-running dispute over client ownership.

The dispute arose when ANZ National switched insurer, dumping Tower and replacing it with Vero.

ANZ National went to court to try and stop Tower renewing insurance policies, but the NZ High Court allowed Tower to continue.

In a judgement by Justice Edwin Wylie, ownership of the clients was deemed to be held by both the bank and the insurer.

The dispute affected 110,000 policyholders with 196,000 policies who generated a premium income of $NZ70 million ($54 million).

Tower also issued proceedings against ANZ National for unlawfully passing on confidential information to new insurer Vero.

While the NZ courts didn’t make any decision on the case, Tower MD Rob Flannagan says an agreement has now been signed ending all disputes between the two companies.

“We are very pleased to have resolved this matter on terms which enables us to continue to protect the interests of our customers,” he said.

“Customers can continue to benefit from their existing relationships with Tower Insurance, which has always been our motivation for pursuing this matter.”