Banks charging high fees to those who can least afford it will refund more than $93 million to customers, following ASIC’s latest bank-fee review.
Report 811 Better and beyond: Expanding better banking outcomes to more low-income Australians (REP 811), released today, details banks’ responses to excessive fees charged on transaction accounts, affecting potentially millions of Australians.
ASIC Chair Joe Longo said, ‘Despite the improvements banks have made during our surveillance, there is clearly work to be done.
‘It should not take an ASIC review to force $93 million in refunds or make banks assess their processes to ensure the trust and expectations placed in them are justified.
‘Banks need to truly hear the messages in this report—read it, review it, and ask themselves some difficult questions about what led to this situation.
‘We expect banks to regularly assess product design and distribution to ensure customers have the most appropriate products and that they are given the support they need.’
ASIC’s previous bank-fee report found banks had kept at least two million low-income Australians, who rely on Centrelink payments, in high fee accounts.
In its latest report, ASIC cast the net over more banks and found even larger numbers of low-income Australians paying too much.
ASIC Commissioner Alan Kirkland said, ‘What started as an initiative focussed on addressing avoidable bank fees for low-income customers in regional and remote locations, particularly First Nations consumers, revealed a much wider problem affecting customers nationwide.
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