Commonwealth Bank acknowledges the statement by the Australian Securities & Investments Commission announcing the fines relating to incorrectly assessing a small number of personal overdraft applications.

Commonwealth Bank identified a system error which meant the Bank did not consider all expense information during the serviceability assessment. Our review determined this affected approximately 11,000 customers, fewer than two per cent of our personal overdraft customers. Commonwealth Bank reported this matter at the time to ASIC and has nearly completed remediating affected customers.

“We sincerely apologise to our customers and we regret that this error occurred,” Clive van Horen, Executive General Manager, Retail Products and Strategy said.

“When we make a mistake that impacts our customers we will put it right to ensure our customers are not adversely affected.

“Once we identified this error, we informed the Australian Securities & Investments Commission and have been working with the regulator as we correct this issue for affected customers. We continue to review our systems and processes to ensure we are delivering the best possible customer experience,” Mr van Horen said.

Affected customers are being contacted to let them know of the error, as well as the need to remove or reduce their personal overdraft. We have also advised customers that any outstanding debt associated with this error is being written off, amounting to approximately $2.5m, and that their credit ratings have not been impacted as a result of this mistake.

Should customers have any questions they can contact the bank on 13 22 21.