Bendigo Bank introduces measures to combat financial abuse

Bendigo Bank has taken a significant step to protect its customers from the harmful effects of financial abuse by introducing new measures to its terms and conditions.

Effective today, the bank now has the power to suspend, cancel, or deny access to products or services for individuals identified as engaging in financial abuse.

This includes a range of harmful behaviours such as making defamatory, harassing, or discriminatory comments; using threatening language; engaging in coercive actions to restrict access to funds; or promoting harm to others.

Chief customer officer for consumer banking at Bendigo Bank, Taso Corolis, emphasised the bank’s commitment to supporting vulnerable individuals.

“At Bendigo Bank, we’re working hard to improve support offered to financially vulnerable customers, employees, suppliers, and our wider community,” Corolis said.

“These changes to our Terms and Conditions are an important step on our journey to better protect and support potential and actual victims of family and domestic violence and financial abuse.”

The introduction of these measures follows the bank’s commitment to the Respect and Protect initiative, launched by social enterprise Flequity Ventures earlier this year.

This initiative aims to encourage businesses to help protect customers and communities from financial abuse, particularly in sectors like banking, insurance, telecommunications, and energy, where perpetrators may accrue debt or threaten victims.

Corolis also expressed gratitude for the work of Flequity Ventures, saying: “The Bank thanks Flequity Ventures for the good work they are doing in the space, and we look forward to continuing to work with them.”

The updated terms and conditions apply to new customers from 5 December 2024 and will extend to existing customers from 5 January 2025.

The bank further provides customers, employees, and the wider community with a slew of other measures to protect them from the impacts of financial abuse.

For customers, those include:

• A specialised team within the bank to help survivors or authorised representatives regain control of their finances with full confidentiality.
• Community education on digital literacy and financial independence.
• The introduction of built-in features designed to protect and keep customers safe at its digital bank, Up. These include the ability to mute or block payments from certain people and options to disable contacts.

Employees who fall victim to financial abuse are entitled to take leave for any employee experiencing or supporting a close relative who is experiencing family and domestic violence.

Additionally, employees have access to a specialised team to help them when experiencing financial vulnerability due to abuse, as well as free professional counselling.

[RELATED: Bendigo Bank launches Financial Inclusion Action Plan]

Adrian Suljanovic is a journalist at Broker Daily with more than two years experience reporting on all facets of the third party distribution channel.

Adrian has written for a range of business and finance titles including IFA, Investor Daily and Lawyer’s Weekly before joining the mortgages team in 2022.

He graduated from the University of Wollongong in 2021 gaining a Bachelor of Communication & Media with a major in Digital & Social Media.

E-mail Adrian at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.