Consumers receiving Australian Government concession payments – typically known as ‘low-income customers’ – negotiate daily life with limited financial resources. Where these limited resources are eroded by bank fees, this can affect their ability to manage essential day-to-day expenses.

This report provides an update on the banking sector’s progress on addressing fees charged to low-income customers. This included how each bank was reviewing transaction data to identify low-income customers and addressing fee harm for low-income customers in high-fee transaction accounts. 

The report follows on from Report 785 Better Banking for Indigenous consumers. In this latest report, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) cast the net over more banks and found even larger numbers of low-income Australians paying too much.

As a result of the latest review nine additional banks removed barriers to accessing a low-fee account, seven additional banks improved processes for moving customers to low-fee accounts, and six additional banks are collecting data to better serve their First Nations customers.

Key findings

• ASIC engaged and collected data from 21 banks.
• Banks will pay over $93 million in refunds to more than 920,000 customers.
• Over $33 million in fees already refunded to more than 150,000 customers.
• A further $60 million to be refunded nationwide to over 770,000 customers.
• Over one million customers moved into low-fee accounts.