When banks breached the Code of Banking Practice over the past year the issue that was most likely to have caused the breach was a problem with credit obligations.Banks reported 7987 breaches of the code to the Code Compliance Monitoring Committee in 2015/16 - a 22 per cent increase compared with the previous year.Breaches of credit obligations accounted for 29 per cent of the total. The breaches related to issues such as the assessment of a customer's ability to pay, appropriate credit assessment methodology and verification of income and liabilities.There was also a high proportion of breaches of privacy and confidentiality obligations. Breaches involving debt collecting was also a big issue.Banks reported 21 "significant" breaches of the code - up from 16 the previous year. These included instances of IT systems not accurately applying the correct interest rates and charges, and a couple of cases of fraud.The CCMC said one reason for the big increase in breach reports was that banks had improved their processes for identifying and reporting breaches.The CCMC said reporting was only one aspect of code compliance. "Banks must use their breach identification to drive improvements to processes and procedures," it said.It said that a number of banks introduced programs aimed at fairer treatment of customers, better communication and better service. Programs included redesigning forms, eliminating duplicate requests for information, more use of checklists, and redesigning websites to make information easier to find.Banks reported that they received 1.2 million customer complaints - down three per cent. More than 90 per cent of these were resolved within five days.Banks received 279,000 requests for assistance with financial difficulty (down six per cent from the previous year) and provided assistance in 70 per cent of cases.