Changes to the way electronic payments are handled in recent years have allowed people to attach detailed messages with their payments. Remarkably, some people have taken the opportunity to abuse and threaten their payees.
Westpac reported that it has blocked 24,000 payments made by 19,000 customers, telling them to change the language used in the messages attached to payments.
On more than 800 occasions it has written warning letters, suspended or cancelled accounts. It has referred more than 70 customers to “authorities”.
One type of abusive payment that is particularly concerning is threatening messages attached to payments to former partners, who might have been victims of domestic violence or are in a financially vulnerable position.
Westpac group executive, customer and corporate relations, Carolyn McCann, said part of the bank’s ESG strategy is to take extra care when dealing with customers in vulnerable situations.
McCann said that in 2018 the bank recognised that its complaints handling was taking too long and since then it has been working to improve its responses.
She said the average time to resolve a complaint is down to five days and the bank has introduced teams that can tailor responses to vulnerable customers in need of extra care.