Read the Fine Print
There are 97 banks in Australia
Together with the Centre for Women’s Economic Safety, we encourage all of them to commit to terms and conditions (T&Cs) which:
- Describe financial abuse as an unacceptable customer behaviour
- Outline the consequences for misusing products and services to inflict financial harm
- Include information about support available to victim-survivors and customer service options
To date, the following banks reference or explicitly ban the misuse of their products and services for financial abuse:
Bank
Terms
Effective From
AMP
A bank account is no place for abuse.
You must not use My AMP or any of our products or other services to engage in conduct that, in our reasonable opinion is unlawful, bullying, harassing, defamatory, abusive or violent towards any person, threatens physical or mental harm towards any person or is inappropriate in any other way (unacceptable conduct).
If we reasonable suspect that you are using My AMP or any of our other products or services to engage in unacceptable conduct, we may exercise our rights set out in condition 1.4 What happens if you breach these terms and conditions? where we reasonably consider doing so is necessary to protect another person from unacceptable conduct.
If the unacceptable conduct is severe or repeated, we may reasonably close your accounts without giving notice.
In some circumstances, we will report unacceptable conduct to law enforcement.
If you experience unacceptable conduct, please contact us on 13 30 30. We will keep this confidential and may be able to assist by making changes to your account access arrangements or helping you to establish a new account.
Domestic and family violence isn’t always physical. It includes financial abuse which can involve removing access to money, manipulating financial decisions, or using someone’s money without their consent. More information and supporting resources are available at https://www.amp.com.au/financial-abuse
You may request the signing authority on your account to be set as ‘any two to sign’ or ‘all to sign’. If you do, and we agree: – where we reasonably believe that a joint account holder is experiencing financial difficulty and has a pressing financial need, authorise us to act on requests made by that person to prevent or reduce the financial hardship they may experience.
2023/11/09
ANZ
Financial abuse and inappropriate behaviour
Bank accounts are no place for financial or other types of abuse and using them to do so can have serious impacts. You must not use the Accounts or the ANZ Plus App to engage in financial or other abuse, unlawful behaviour or to engage in offensive, threatening, defamatory, harassing or controlling behaviour. If you do you may be warned and we may take other action, including closing your Accounts. Read ‘Closing Accounts’ in ‘Stopping and Closing’.
If you are experiencing financial abuse and would like to discuss your options with us, you can contact us using one of the contact methods listed in ‘How to contact us’ in ‘Getting in touch’. We also provide information about financial abuse on anz.com.
2023/10/06
Australian Unity
We all may experience financial difficulty at some time. This may be related to, but not limited to: injury or illness, loss of employment or reduced income, a pandemic, natural disaster, relationship breakdown, domestic violence or financial abuse or gambling. We understand that some of our customers may face periods of financial difficulty. All customers are eligible to use our Financial Hardship Assistance Services. If you’re experiencing financial difficulty, please contact us as soon as possible.
When we exercise a right or discretion under these Conditions of Use We will do it in a way that is fair and reasonable. This includes when We make changes to terms of these Conditions of Use or fees and charges. We can take a range of things into account when exercising our rights and discretions. These include Our legitimate business interests, Our regulatory and prudential obligations, Our obligations under Card scheme rules, our cost of doing business, the management of any risks (including sanctions risks), and the prevention of the misuse of Our facilities, including to prevent financial abuse or potential fraud or scams.
2023/11/09
Bank of China
When we exercise a right or discretion under these Conditions of Use We will do it in a way that is fair and reasonable. This includes when We make changes to terms of these Conditions of Use or fees and charges. We can take a range of things into account when exercising our rights and discretions. These include Our legitimate business interests, Our regulatory and prudential obligations, Our obligations under Card scheme rules, our cost of doing business, the management of any risks (including sanctions risks), and the prevention of the misuse of Our facilities, including to prevent financial abuse or potential fraud or scams.
2023/11/09
CBA
If we: … – reasonably believe you or your Authorised Operator(s) may be using, have used or may plan to use a Safe Custody Facility in a manner which may cause us or any other person loss or harm (for example, in a way which may constitute Financial Abuse); … then we may immediately: – refuse to establish a Safe Custody Facility; – refuse to allow you to authorise a person as an Authorised Operator for your Safe Custody Facility; refuse access to your Safe Custody Facility; suspend the provision of the Safe Custody Facility; refuse to return, deliver or produce the contents of your Safe Custody Facility; report you and/or your Authorised Operators and/or the contents of your Safe Custody Facility to regulators; – refuse to allow or facilitate access to any assets of yours held with us to be used or dealt with; or terminate our Agreement and close your Safe Custody Facility.
… If we believe on reasonable grounds that you might not have authorised the instruction or to do so might cause loss or harm to you (for example, an instruction given to us may result in Financial Abuse) or us, we will not be obliged to comply with your instructions. Financial Abuse: A serious form of domestic and family violence that may occur through a pattern of control and results in exploitation or sabotage of money and finances which affects an individual’s capacity to acquire, use and maintain economic well-being and which threatens their financial security and self-sufficiency.
2023/08/14
Central Murray Credit Union
We can delay, block, freeze or refuse a transaction or suspend an account, or suspend access to an account, without prior notice to you, where we believe: … the transaction is not in the Account Holder’s interest, (for example where we think the Account Holder is in a vulnerable position due to illness, cognitive impairment, domestic violence, elder abuse, financial abuse or other similar circumstances)
2023/10/31
G&C Mutual Bank
We can delay, block, freeze or refuse a transaction or suspend an account, or suspend access to an account, without prior notice to you, where we believe: … the transaction is not in the Account Holder’s interest, (for example: where we think the Account Holder is in a vulnerable position due to illness, cognitive impairment, domestic violence, elder abuse, financial abuse or other similar circumstance)
2023/06/02
HSBC
Our customers are important to us. This means that it is important that our products, accounts and online banking services are not used in a way that harms others or to perpetuate financial abuse.
You must not use our products, accounts or online banking services in a manner which we determine on a reasonable basis does, or is likely to, result in financial abuse. This can include where your conduct: … Is harassing, offensive, threatening, intimidating, abusive or caused or is likely to cause or encourage physical or mental harm to another person or promotes violence against any person, including customers of another bank.
UK: If all account holders agree, we can convert an account from joint names to a sole name … however if a joint account holder is a victim of financial abuse, we may remove them from a joint account without requiring other account holders to agree to this
2023/11/03
HSBC UK
If all account holders agree, we can convert an account from joint names to a sole name … however if a joint account holder is a victim of financial abuse, we may remove them from a joint account without requiring other account holders to agree to this
2021/11/23
IMB Bank
Acting reasonably, having regard to our legitimate business interests, We may in some circumstances suspend your access to one or more of your Accounts without prior notice, including but not limited to where: …
We have reasonable grounds to believe that there is a fraud or financial abuse risk associated with the continued use of your Account;
We may prevent access to the Account in this way until We are reasonably satisfied that the fraud or financial abuse risk has been mitigated, the dispute has been resolved or until We, in our discretion but acting reasonably having regard to our legitimate business interests and the security of the Account, otherwise decide that normal access should be restored.
2023/11/09
Lloyds Bank
If you want to remove or change one or more account holders or authorise someone else to operate the account, usually you must all agree to this. If a joint account holder is the victim of domestic or financial abuse we may agree to a request from them to be removed from a joint account without the agreement of other account holders.
2023/08/01
MyState Bank
Financial abuse is a serious form of domestic and family violence that occurs when an abuser uses money and resources to gain power, and to control their partner or family member. Financial abuse can be extremely emotional and traumatic.
If you or someone you know is suffering financial abuse, you can contact us for a confidential conversation on what options are available to you.
Alternatively search Extra Care on mystate.com.au for further information.
MyState has a zero tolerance for financial abuse by a MyState customer.
2023/10/01
NAB
We will investigate instances where we identify or are made aware that a product is being used in a financially abusive manner, including:
Coercive or controlling behaviour to limit a person’s access to or use of funds
We may reasonably exercise our rights in this contract to suspend, cancel or deny an account holder’s access to credit through redraw if we reasonably consider it appropriate to protect a customer or another person from financial abuse.
2023/11/04
Up Bank
We may also restrict a 2Up account if: we are notified of or otherwise become aware of any dispute between the joint account holders affecting the account; we are notified or otherwise become aware of the bankruptcy of a joint account holder; or we consider it to be necessary to prevent financial harm or abuse.
2023/11/09
WBC
Closing your accounts
We may also exercise our discretion to close accounts (and cancel any linked card(s)) or refuse to accept further deposits or allow further withdrawals after giving reasonable notice to you (and, we may also notify the authorised signatory/signatories) due to unsatisfactory conduct or for any other reason we deem appropriate such as: … where we reasonably believe the use of an account has caused harm (for example financial abuse) to another person
2023/10/27
Does your bank have relevant terms & conditions?
We want to celebrate these changes. Please contact us with details of your bank’s financial abuse T&Cs so we can add to the list!
“Banks are working together to consider how banking products and services can be made ‘safe by design’.”
Anna Bligh, CEO Australian Banking Association