News

This year’s federal budget will help Australia recover from the economic impact of COVID‑19 and create jobs as the nation recovers. The Australian Banking Association has welcomed the strong focus on support for small and medium businesses and direct assistance to families. “Australian banks stand ready to continue their role helping millions of Australians through… Read more »

“These changes will make banking faster and easier” said ABA CEO Anna Bligh

“Banks look forward to working with the Government to ensure the legislation works for both customers and the broader economy”.

As people approach the end of their six-month loan deferral, banks will implement a new phase of support to assist customers to return to repayments.

Australia’s banks supported their customers as the country entered the COVID-19 pandemic and they continue to support them on the way out.    As the initial wave of 6-month loan payment deferrals come to an end, banks have begun to contact customers for their 6-month assessment and to discuss the next stage of support and assistance. … Read more »

Helping businesses to remain viable and keeping people in their homes is good for everyone.

During Victoria’s Stage 4 lockdown, banking has been classified by the Victorian Government as critical, enabling banking services to continue, with work-related travel (such as restocking and servicing of ATMs) permitted.

“These figures show there are some green shoots emerging in our economy and that’s a positive sign.” – ABA CEO Anna Bligh

“This will be welcome news for SMEs and opens up the scheme to those businesses who are looking to invest or need some extra support.”

This new phase of support turns a cliff into manageable steps for Australians to get back on track.

Open Banking officially began in Australia on July 1. It will ramp up across the banking sector over the next few months. Customers will be able to securely share their data to get the best deal possible on credit cards, savings accounts and other deposit products.

“Customers can be assured that they will always be in control of how and when they share their data.”

Temporary changes to the Banking Code of Practice reflect that the COVID-19 pandemic may temporarily affect the provision of banking services.

Businesses in the creative industry who are looking to take advantage of the government-backed concessional loans should get in touch with their bank.

Banking activity during the coronavirus pandemic. Between 14 May and 19 June the ABA published data on total deferrals member banks made to customers. These figures represented the sum total of deferrals made at the time of each data publication, and does not account for deferrals which had been reversed at the customer request. ABA’s… Read more »

The temporary introduction of COVID-19 related measures such as electronic mortgages, witnessing a document over video call and signing documents electronically should be made permanent to save time, money and hassle for Australian customers.   A coalition of associations including the Australian Banking Association, the Business Council of Australia, the Australian Institute of Company Directors,… Read more »

The highest priority for the ABA over the last three months of 2020 has been leading an industry response to COVID-19 to help impacted businesses and customers.

Banks have deferred the repayments of one in fourteen mortgages totalling more than $150 billion to assist Australians through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over the next few weeks, banks will be contacting customers who don’t have debit cards. Currently there are over half a million Australian bank customers who actively use a passbook account or transaction account with no linked debit card.

Australia’s banks deferred an extra 100,000 loans, this week, including approximately 50,000 home loans, to help customers through the COVID-19 Pandemic. Total number of loans deferred is now at least 643,000.