The Banking Code Compliance Committee has renewed its call for banks to do more to prevent breaches of the Code of Banking Practice, in response to a sharp increase in breaches in the latest reporting period.
Banks reported 24,467 breaches of the Banking Code of Practice during the six months to December last year – a 19 per cent increase over the previous six months.
One of the big banks reported an 86 per cent increase, another a 29 per cent increase and a third a 12 per cent increase. Seven other banks also reported increases.
One of the big banks and five others reported decreases. The big banks account for more than 90 per cent of reported breaches.
The banks attributed the increases to ongoing investment to improve the identification, recording and reporting of breaches.
There were also issues related to manual processes used to handle COVID packages and hardship applications that were not automated into relevant systems.
Banks reported higher staff turnover rates due to COVID, resulting in more errors and increased breaches while new staff were being trained.
“With the code now more than three years old, we would like to see the breaches stabilise in a downward trend, with a greater focus on prevention,” said BCCC chair Ian Govey.
“We welcome banks’ ongoing efforts to build their capability to identify and address non-compliance. We expect banks will soon move beyond this consolidation phase with a greater focus on preventing breaches.”
Parts of the code that involved the biggest increases in complaints were Part 4, which covers inclusive and accessible banking, Part 5 (applying for loans) and Part 10 (resolving complaints).
One-third of breaches were identified through customer complaints, 33 per cent were self-reported and 25 per cent were identified through call and systems monitoring.