NAB has updated its terms and conditions to give staff authority to “cut off” customers identified as committing financial abuse.
Under the heading of “unacceptable account conduct”, the bank said it can suspend, cancel or deny individuals access to their savings and transaction accounts if the bank identifies them as engaging in financial abuse.
NAB’s head of customer vulnerability Michael Chambers said in a statement: “Concerns about financial abuse remains one of the top reasons customers get in touch with our customer support team.”
Chambers said common types of abuse included individuals being denied access to their own funds and having funds misused by others.
The bank has been blocking abusing messages sent with payments for some time. It said it has blocked more than 200,000 transaction messages since January last year and is currently blocking around 18,000 a month.
The Centre for Women’s Economic Safety welcomed the move. In a report earlier this year it said none of the 20 banks it reviewed had any reference to financial abuse in their terms and conditions.
The report’s author, University of New South Wales adjunct professor Catherine Fitzpatrick, said: “If every bank in Australia made it clear there is a minimum expectation of respect for women to be a customer, it would be a game changer.”
Commonwealth Bank has flagged that it will make similar changes to its terms and conditions.