ASIC has announced that Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has paid four infringement notices totalling $180,000 in relation to breaches of responsible lending laws when providing personal overdraft facilities.
CBA reported this matter to ASIC following an ASIC surveillance. CBA conducted an internal review which identified a programming error in the automated serviceability calculator used to assess certain applications for personal overdrafts.
As a result of the error, between July 2011 and September 2015, CBA failed to take into consideration the declared housing and living expenses of some consumers.
Instead, CBA’s serviceability calculator substituted $0 housing expenses, and living expenses based on a benchmark which in some instances was substantially less than the living expenses declared by the consumer. As a result, this led to an over-estimation of the consumer’s capacity to service the overdraft facility.
CBA informed ASIC that between July 2011 and September 2015, as a result of the error, CBA approved:
• 9,577 consumers for overdrafts which would have otherwise been declined; and
• 1,152 consumers for higher overdraft limits than would have otherwise been provided.
Some consumers were approved for a personal overdraft, or an increased limit on their personal overdraft, even though their declared expenses were greater than their declared income.
CBA has informed ASIC that it will write off a total of approximately $2.5 million in personal overdraft balances.
