“An ASIC review should not be necessary to prompt $93 million in refunds or compel banks to scrutinize their mechanisms to ensure they stay true to the trust and expectations placed upon them.”

The report detailed efforts by the four participating banks — ANZ, Bendigo Bank, Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), and Westpac — including commitments to $28 million in refunds and transitioning over 200,000 low-income customers from high-fee to low-fee accounts.

Banking practices ‘a much wider problem’

“Initiated to tackle preventable bank fees for low-income consumers in regional and remote areas, particularly among First Nations people, the initiative uncovered a broader issue impacting clients across the country,” explained ASIC commissioner Alan Kirkland.

What did the 2025 report find?

Seven additional banks committed to paying back $3.6 million, benefiting an extra 45,000 customers.

Nine additional banks have also improved their internal processes to serve First Nations customers, the report says. This included six banks collecting information on customers who identified as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander to inform their service delivery.

“We encourage consumers to challenge their banks to ensure that they are in the best account for their needs. More importantly, we encourage banks to do more to proactively identify low-income customers and move them to low-fee accounts.”

How have banks responded?

Also among ANZ’s changes are automatically moving customers who receive particular payments into an ANZ account into a low-fee account, unless they prefer otherwise, improvements to its account opening process for these customers and setting up a dedicated support line for First Nations customers.