COVID-19: banks are here to help.
14 October 2021
As essential services, Australia’s banks have focussed, throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, on keeping their staff and customers safe.
Safety measures have included:
- Maintaining social distancing in branches and workplaces
- Installing protective screens and supplying PPE to staff
- Facilitating work from home where possible
ABA member banks also recognise that vaccination is a critical measure to protect against COVID-19 and are actively encouraging and supporting their staff to get vaccinated, including with the provision of paid leave for staff to access vaccinations and, in some locations, undertaking employer vaccination and testing programs.
After further industry discussions, individual banks have considered their next steps and will be undertaking appropriate consultation with their staff on an entity by entity basis.
Latest news
The Australian Banking Association (ABA) is informing customers about an important update that may affect some debit cards used in mobile wallets. Australian Payments Plus (AP+) is implementing a technical update to ensure that consumers can continue to make payments via eftpos from 1 January 2025. A small number of consumers who added their debit… Read more »
The Australian Banking Association welcomes the launch today of the Regulatory Initiatives Grid (RIG) pilot as an important step forward in improving transparency of the regulatory pipeline across key Government agencies and regulators. ABA CEO Anna Bligh said better coordination of regulation would provide additional certainty for Australian banks. “Banks recognise that effective regulation is… Read more »
New data released today from the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), shows Australians continue to embrace the ease of mobile wallets when making payments. For the first time, the RBA’s latest monthly retail payments data includes a snapshot of newer payment technology, showing more than 500 million payments were made via mobile wallets in October,… Read more »