Commonwealth Bank position on advertising campaign

Following media attention on the Bank’s current home loan redraw advertising campaign, the Bank provides the following information to address the criticism levelled at the campaign:

• The home loan redraw facility is only available to those Commonwealth Bank customers who are ahead of their required home loan repayments.
  
• The redraw facility is a standard, popular and convenient feature of many home loan products. The use of the home loan redraw facility provides our home loan borrowers access to previously approved funding at home loan interest rates.
  
• What we have done here to assist customers is to bring the redraw facility to their attention and to reduce the minimum amount of redraw from $2,000 to $500.
  
• Those home loan borrowers who are able to utilise the redraw facility have previously demonstrated their understanding of meeting home loan repayments and making additional payments.
  
• In our advertorial, the Bank encourages customers to replace the funds in their home loan account during the year. It encourages customers to be disciplined in the way they manage their finances. It also stresses that the facility is not only available for Christmas, but also for school costs and other year-end activities.
  
• This form of advertising enables the Bank to set out all of the features and issues of the Redraw facility.
  
• In the very same edition where advertorial was placed, the Bank also placed a clearly branded advertisement.