Westpac on the lookout for repayment stress

Westpac is putting together a new business unit called Westpac Assist, whose job will be to work with customers showing signs of repayment stress.

Westpac group executive consumer financial services, Mike Pratt, said the unit, which would have about 15 members, would look after inquiries from customers as well as getting in touch with customers who looked as though they needed assistance.

Banks are required under the Banking Code to work with customers facing financial hardship. Pratt said staff would still be trained to comply with the Code.

He said: "The way it works today is that customers look for an entry point into the bank. Sometimes it works well and sometimes not.

"We wanted to have a dedicated team focused on the issue."

The creation of the new unit is one of a number of things the bank is doing under the heading of responsible lending.

It has reduced the outward bound dishonour fee from $25 to $10 and account overdraw fee from $20 to $10 for all Westpac Basic accounts and selected student and youth accounts.

Pratt said the bank was doing more work on exception fees. "We are looking at our value proposition by channel and by segment."

One of the bank's commitments is to lend only what customers can afford to pay.

Pratt said the bank had improved its credit scoring and introduced some sophisticated analytics for assessing the debt servicing capacity of credit card and home loan customers.

So no more over-the-counter offers to increase credit limits?

"We separate the sales process from the credit process. Customers may be offered a higher limit but it will not be approved unit it has been through a credit process."