The Customer Owned Banking Code Compliance Committee has released its Annual Report for 2019-2020.

The Report discloses that there were 9 Code breaches investigated; 3 cases involved responsible lending and 3 cases involved aspects of service issues, delays in providing the service or not explaining the service to the customer in a satisfactory manner.

The greatest financial impacts involved two individual customers. One breach was caused when staff did not follow process and procedures regarding responsible lending practices and one breach was caused by staff arranging transfers from a deceased account in error.

The highest number of customers impacted by one reported breach (124,438) occurred when a change to programming resulted in investor deposits being underpaid and overpaid for some accounts due to a system error (self-reported as a breach). 119,600 customers were impacted by an attack of a third-party hosted system resulting in a data breach (self-reported as a breach).

Code review restarts

The Report notes that the Customer Owned Banking Association is restarting its review of the Code which commenced in 2018.

The Final Report of the Independent Review of the Customer Owned Banking Code of Practice has previously been released together with an “Indicative” Draft Code which is a completely revised version of the Code.

The release by ASIC of RG 271 – Internal Dispute Resolution guidance, which includes enforceable provisions, and the expected passage of the legislation regarding the enforceability of Code provisions, means compliance with Codes and meeting community expectations will remain important.

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