CBA pays $180K in penalties

Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) reported this matter to ASIC following a surveillance from the Commission. CBA conducted an internal review, which identified a programming error in the automated serviceability calculator used to assess certain applications for personal overdrafts. 

As a result of the error, between July 2011 and September 2015, CBA failed to take into consideration the declared housing and living expenses of some consumers.

Instead, CBA's serviceability calculator substituted $0 housing expenses, and living expenses based on a benchmark which in some instances was substantially less than the living expenses declared by the consumer.

As a result, this led to an over-estimation of the consumer's capacity to service the overdraft facility.

CBA informed ASIC that as a result of the error, between July 2011 and September 2015 it approved:

• 9,577 consumers for overdrafts that would have otherwise been declined; and
• 1,152 consumers for higher overdraft limits than would have otherwise been provided.

ASIC was concerned that this conduct breached responsible lending laws and that affected consumers would have been unable to comply, or could only comply with substantial hardship, with their obligation to repay their personal overdraft on demand.

CBA has informed ASIC that it will write off a total of approximately $2.5 million in personal overdraft balances.

ASIC issued four infringement notices in August 2016 totalling $180,000 for the breaches outlined above.

ASIC deputy chairman Peter Kell said: "Credit licensees should continuously monitor their internal processes to ensure compliance with the law. This is especially the case with automated decision-making systems where ongoing monitoring is needed to ensure that information is correctly inputted into systems."