Two of Australia’s biggest banks have committed to introduce new terms and conditions that will enable them to suspend or cancel customer accounts if they are misused for financial abuse.
National Australia Bank has announced a new ‘unacceptable account conduct’ condition on its savings and transaction accounts that will allow bankers to cut off customers who are perpetrating financial abuse.
The Commonwealth Bank says it will name financial abuse as an unacceptable customer behaviour in new terms and conditions on a range of products.
The move adopts a key recommendation of the Designed to DisruptTM report on banking, written by Catherine Fitzpatrick and published by the Centre for Women’s Economic Safety in November 2022.
“The new T&Cs send a clear signal to millions of bank customers that they have a choice: abuse and potentially lose access to their bank account, or behave with respect,” Ms Fitzpatrick said.
“We know gender inequality is the driver of violence against women. If every bank in Australia made it clear that there is a minimum expectation of respect for women to be a customer, it would be a game changer.
“Our research found more than 90% of customers who send abuse payment descriptions stop doing it when warned by their bank.
“We hope the widespread adoption of financial abuse T&Cs and broad public communication will send a strong message to everyone with a bank account that gendered violence is unacceptable and has consequences.”
Rebecca Glenn, CEO of CWES, said: “This response from two of Australia’s major banks puts perpetrators ‘on notice’ that institutions are going to make it harder for them to use financial abuse as a tactic of coercive control. And, importantly, that they’ll take action.”
You can read the full media release here.