Banking Code of Practice and Financial Abuse

How the Banking Code of Practice Works

The Australian Banking Association (ABA) publishes the Banking Code of Practice, and subscribing banks adopt its standards through their customer terms. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) approves the code. ASIC’s approval explanation confirms that relevant provisions form part of banking-service and guarantee contracts.

Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, ANZ and NAB are among the subscribing banks. Identify the legal entity that provided the account, then obtain its terms for the disputed period. The older name, Code of Banking Practice, still appears in historical decisions and documents.

The Banking Code Compliance Committee (BCCC) monitors compliance and investigates potential breaches. ASIC approval does not make ASIC the body that resolves individual code complaints. Compensation follows a different route through the bank, the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) or a court.

The Current Code and What Changed

The 2025 Banking Code of Practice is the edition listed by the ABA and ASIC. ASIC approved it in 2024, and it commenced in 2025. The approval announcement supplies the exact commencement boundary.

The revised code recognises that anyone can experience vulnerability and that circumstances change. It also strengthens guarantor protections through a meeting before acceptance, subject to stated exceptions. Improved accessibility and clearer deceased-estate arrangements can affect an older customer’s access to help.

Apply the edition governing each disputed act. Conduct before the current code commenced needs the earlier applicable code, even if the complaint arrives later. A pattern spanning the change requires separate analysis of the conduct on each side of the boundary.

AFCA’s Operational Guidelines explain how it considers the law, codes and industry practice operating at the time. AFCA can consider a higher standard than a code’s minimum when deciding what is fair. A later obligation is not automatically a retrospective duty.

Duties to Customers Experiencing Financial Abuse

Part B2 of the Banking Code requires extra care for customers experiencing vulnerability. Paragraph 52 expressly names “elder abuse”, “family and/or domestic violence” and “financial abuse”. Paragraphs 53 and 54 address suitable banking arrangements, privacy and support for an appropriate representative.

Staff training under paragraph 7 supports those commitments. The code’s encouragement to disclose vulnerability explains why notice matters, but a complaint can also identify warning signs apparent during bank contact. Document what staff saw or heard, rather than assuming the bank understood the whole family situation.

The ABA’s financial-abuse guideline describes possible responses and good industry practice. These include safe communication, specialist escalation and consideration of protective account arrangements. The guideline generally sits outside the contractual code unless expressly incorporated.

Taking extra care does not create an automatic duty to reject every unusual instruction. The customer’s authority and capacity matter, as do signs of coercion and the bank’s contractual or legal basis for intervention. A customer can make a large gift freely. A relative answering every question while the customer appears frightened calls for a different response.

Keep a trusted support person separate from the person suspected of abuse. Ask the bank to establish safe contact with the customer and record the concern. A bank may seek advice from a state safeguarding body, subject to privacy rules. The separate elder-abuse reporting guide explains those reporting pathways.

The BCCC’s report on vulnerability breaches identifies missed opportunities to recognise and support vulnerable customers. It also identifies system and process weaknesses. A complaint can therefore ask about failed escalation or inaccessible authority records, alongside the individual staff response.

Attorneys, Guardians and Joint Accounts

A bank must establish the authority under which another person operates the customer’s account. A power of attorney, administration order and ordinary account mandate give different powers. A guardian’s appointment does not necessarily include financial decisions.

The ABA’s attorney and administrator guideline describes checks on identity, certified documents and the appointment’s scope. It also addresses commencement conditions and whether appointees must act together. Where commencement depends on lost capacity, supporting evidence can be required.

Ask for the document the bank received and the authority it recorded against the account. Compare the questioned transaction with any restrictions. An appointment limited to bill payments raises a different issue from unrestricted account access. Investigating the attorney’s own conduct belongs in the guide to abuse of power of attorney.

Joint ownership and third-party access also need separate treatment. Under paragraph 147, a joint holder can request an authority requiring all holders to approve future withdrawals. That rule does not apply to company directors acting only as company signatories.

An access authority does not itself make the relative a joint owner. Westpac’s authority guide distinguishes a person authorised to speak with the bank from a signatory or online-access user. Obtain the actual form and access level. Ask about suspension or removal where misuse is suspected, with attention to the customer’s continuing access to living expenses.

For an older guarantor, obtain the guarantee pack and records of the bank’s meeting. Part B6 requires steps to discuss the guarantee without the borrower present. Exceptions include confirmed independent legal advice and specified guarantor categories. The ordinary waiting period is three days after the required information, with exceptions. The warning and document requirements are useful checks where a relative arranged the guarantee.

How Major Banks Respond to Financial Abuse

Major banks publish specialist support routes, but an enquiry must still identify the customer and the person authorised to act. Use the bank’s financial-abuse pathway alongside its complaint process when urgent protection and compensation are both sought.

Bank	Published Support	Contact Route
Commonwealth Bank	Next Chapter specialists assess needs, assist with safe financial management and make referrals	Next Chapter, 1800 222 387
Westpac	Priority Assist discusses protective steps with customers experiencing elder financial abuse	Elder financial abuse support, 1800 063 509
ANZ	Extra Care Hub discusses financial abuse and safe banking, with specialist help for financial difficulty	Financial-abuse support, 1800 943 438
NAB	Extra Care specialists discuss safe banking and a banking safety review	Extra Care support, 1300 308 175

Commonwealth Bank’s Safe & Savvy resources address abuse of older people. Its Next Chapter pathway includes financial-abuse situations within its domestic and family violence assistance. A lawyer or family member can raise specific concerns and request specialist assessment. Supplying a concern does not itself authorise the bank to disclose the customer’s records to that person.

For any bank, specify the transactions and authority creating concern. Request a review of recent activity, safe contact arrangements and consideration of a hold on disputed third-party access. Ask the bank to explain its proposed action and record why it accepts or declines the request. A hold needs an appropriate basis and must account for living expenses.

Where the customer has died, provide the estate representative’s authority. Ask which records the bank can release through its deceased-estate process. Avoid relying on a former attorney’s authority to speak for the estate.

The Customer Owned Banking Code of Practice

Subscribing mutual banks, credit unions and building societies use the Customer Owned Banking Code of Practice. They do not automatically fall under the ABA code. The association’s code register lists subscribers and the 2022 code, version 2.0, effective from 2023.

The mutual banking code requires extra care where the bank knows of vulnerable circumstances. Paragraph 26 names elder abuse and financial abuse. Paragraph 27 requires training to identify vulnerability and adapt customer service. Both codes therefore support complaints about inadequate care, although their clauses and wording differ.

The Customer Owned Banking Code Compliance Committee monitors this code. Use the relevant committee and subscriber list rather than treating the two codes as interchangeable.

The association’s independent-review updates record delivery of a final report in 2026. The association says it will consult further while developing its response. Recommendations in that report do not themselves replace the published code.

Complaining When a Bank Failed to Act

Start a bank complaint with the disputed conduct and the remedy sought. Identify the relevant code edition and clause, then explain how the bank’s response fell short. Attach a short chronology with source references. Separate the relative’s withdrawals from the loss you say the bank’s breach caused.

1. Lodge the complaint through the bank’s internal dispute resolution process. Ask for a reference, an urgent protective response where needed and a written outcome.
2. Escalate to AFCA if the bank’s response is unsatisfactory or the applicable response period expires. Include the complaint correspondence and your authority to act.
3. Compare the bank’s explanation with each alleged failure. Identify the warning sign, the action reasonably required and the subsequent loss you attribute to inaction.
4. Confirm that the proposed remedy addresses both the disputed loss and any continuing access risk.

Under rule A.14.2, AFCA’s Rules require a fair decision having regard to legal principles, applicable codes and good industry practice. Its approach to financial abuse of older people explains how these matters enter its complaint assessment.

For ordinary claims under the Rules’ general category, the amount claimed must not exceed $1,263,000, and direct-loss compensation is capped at $631,500 per claim. Special categories differ. A claim to set aside a guarantee secured over the guarantor’s principal residence has different limits. These figures are Australian dollars. Use the Rules’ limits table to identify the category before choosing a forum.

A report to the BCCC supports compliance monitoring and possible action on wider failures. The BCCC does not resolve individual disputes or award compensation. A customer-owned bank requires its own code committee.

A court claim may fit where the remedy falls outside AFCA’s powers or the claim exceeds its limits. Consider limitation periods, evidence access and costs before selecting that route. A code breach alone does not establish the amount recoverable. Connect the bank’s obligation, its breach and the loss in the pleading or complaint.

Using the Bank’s Records as Evidence

Request records that show the transactions and the bank’s knowledge at the relevant time. Establish your client’s authority first. For historical records, the guide to old bank statements explains how to frame the request.

Request the following records:

• Statements and transaction histories covering the questioned period and an earlier comparison period.
• Account-opening forms, joint-account mandates and third-party authority forms, including later changes.
• The power of attorney or court order held by the bank, with its recorded restrictions and activation details.
• Contact notes, complaint records and call recordings where available for release.
• Records of referrals to specialist teams and decisions about disputed access or payments.
• Guarantee disclosures and meeting records where a guarantee is in issue.

Create a transaction chronology alongside the contact chronology. Record cash withdrawals, transfers to new payees and changes following an attorney’s appointment. Keep each amount tied to its statement filename and page. The elder financial abuse guide explains the warning signs without treating every unusual payment as abuse.

In a hypothetical matter, an account has occasional small cash withdrawals before a carer receives access. Weekly larger withdrawals then begin. The customer later tells a branch employee that the carer controls their card. Distinguish withdrawals before that conversation from later losses when arguing what the bank knew and when intervention was required.

FinTrace saves lawyers and forensic accountants hours of statement conversion and review while preparing that chronology. The service produces a searchable Excel ledger and a clear report that flags suspicious transactions. Each finding cites its PDF filename and page, putting the supporting evidence beside the analysis.

Use the ledger to identify the transaction sequence, then pair it with the bank’s contact and authority records. Present the complaint around the point when the warning signs reached the bank, the response required and the losses that followed.