Better Bank Fee Disclosure Welcome
11 May 2007
Abacus – Australian Mutuals welcomes today’s announcement that banks will improve their disclosure of dishonour and late payment fees.
Consumer groups have been warning about the risk of a “bank fee poverty trap” for low income people.
Abacus – Australian Mutuals represents 150 credit unions and mutual building societies with more than 4.5 million members nationwide.
Our industry’s leading position in customer satisfaction reflects our consistent, member-focused approach and our ability to deliver products and services at a reasonable cost.
Abacus is meeting with representatives from the consumer movement (CHOICE and the Consumer Action Law Centre) next week to discuss the consumer groups’ proposal for an industry-wide review of fees related to consumer default.
“Obvously all businesses have to recover their costs but credit unions and mutual building societies exist to serve their members, not to extract fee income and profit from them,” says Adrian Lovney, Chief Executive of Abacus.
“Our review suggests that direct debit dishonour fees charged by credit unions and building societies are on average much lower than fees charges by the major banks – around $24 compared to $36.”
“We applaud moves to increase community understanding about fees and we look forward to seeing the banks’ new disclosure practices on their fees.”
“Abacus will progress discussions with consumer groups on these important issues,” said Mr Lovney.
For more information:
Louise Petschler
Head of Public Affairs
Abacus – Australian Mutuals
(02) 8299 9046; (0408) 239 226;
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Abacus – Australian Mutuals is the industry body for credit unions and mutual building societies in Australia. For a full list of credit unions and mutual building societies around Australia and our leading position in customer satisfaction and service in retail banking, go to www.abacus.org.au
