Changes to CommBank terms and conditions documents

Effective 15 July 2024, the current Information Guide titled “International Payments Information Guide” will be amended as set out below.

• On page 5, under the heading ‘Privacy’, first point will replace “Anti-Money Laundering/Counter-Terrorism” with Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism, and add “and other purposes”
• Third point will be replaced with “use and sharing in line with our Group Privacy Statement – see further below”
• Sentence starting with ‘Our Group Privacy Statement' will be amended to “Our Group Privacy Statement describes how we collect, handle and share your information, for example:”
• The first point under the above sentence will have “other” and “or” removed, “and share” and “with third parties” will be added.
• New sentence “Examples of how we use and share your information” will be added.
• New dot point under the above new sentence “You give us the authority to disclose your full name, date of birth, address and banking details with other banks when we process your payment.” will be added.
• New sentence “We won’t share these details with other customers or use them for marketing purposes.” will be added.
•  On page 7, under the heading ‘More about correspondent banks’, the paragraph starting with ‘Correspondent banks may convert a payment to a different currency...’, in the third last line will have the word “and” removed.
• The first dot point will have “including risk assessments,” added.
• The fourth dot point will be replaced with “screening and due diligence processes, undertaken by CommBank and overseas banks associated with international sanctions or financial crime request, including but not limited to delays connected with:”
• First sub-point under the fourth dot point will be added “CommBank’s risk appetite and financial crime policies;”
• Second sub-point under the fourth dot point will be added “Complying with any applicable law in Australia or overseas including laws relating to International Sanctions; anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing including know your customer (KYC); anti-bribery and corruption; tax evasion and tax transparency;”
• Third sub-point under the fourth dot point will be added “Complying with payment Scheme Rules;”
• Fourth sub-point under the fourth dot point will be added “Complying with other regulatory requirements including any request or direction by, or requirement of a Regulator or Payment Scheme Operator”
• New paragraph added “Sanctions means any trade, economic or financial sanctions administered or enforced by the U.S. Department of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, the United Nations Security Council, the European Union, the UK HM Treasury, the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Hong Kong Commerce, Industry and Tourism Branch of the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the Ministry of Finance Japan,  or any other trade, economic or financial sanctions administered or enforced by Australia including the Charter of the United Nations Act 1945 (Cth), the Autonomous Sanctions Act 2011 (Cth), or any other relevant sanctions authority or country.”
• On page 9, under heading ‘International Money Transfers (IMTs), privacy consent and authorisation’, in the paragraph the word “an” will be replaced with “relevant”,  “authority” will be replaced with “authorities”, “an Anti-Money Laundering (AML), Know Your Customer (KYC) or Sanctions” will be removed and replaced with “a financial crime” and “as referred to in More about correspondent banks” will be added.
• Under heading ‘Payment processing and fees’, the fourth dot point “The” has been amended to “the”
• Third paragraph will have “and Australian legal and regulatory requirements” added, and “In these situations, we are not liable for any resultant loss or shortfall.” removed.
• New line added “Where we reasonably consider it is necessary:”
• First dot point added “to comply with any applicable law in Australia or overseas, or our financial crimes policies”
• Second dot point added “to meet requests and requirements of overseas banks;”
• Third dot point added “other reasons referred to in More about correspondent banks”
• Fourth dot point added “to manage any risk”.
• New paragraph added “we have the right to delay, block or refuse to process any payment or transaction, suspend your access to electronic banking without telling you why or providing notice, or incurring any liability if we reasonably believe that allowing the transaction may:”
• First dot point added “breach Sanctions, or any applicable law in Australia or overseas including laws relating to anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing, anti-bribery and corruption, tax evasion and tax transparency, Payment Scheme Rules, or any other regulatory requirement including any request or direction by, or requirement of any regulator or Payment Scheme Operator;”
• Second dot point added “cause you or us to lose money (e.g. a fraudulent transaction or scam);”
• Third dot point added “expose you or us to unreasonable risk.”
• New line added “We may also decline a transaction if we reasonably believe that:”
• First dot point added “you haven’t provided all of the information we need.  You must provide us with all information which we reasonably require, and comply with any Australian or international law. We also have the right to disclose information concerning you or any person named in the payment instruction to any law enforcement, regulatory agency or court, where an Australian or other jurisdiction’s law requires us to do so”
• Second dot point added “You can read more about our policies on our website.”
• Proceeding line and dot points have been removed. “We may decline to process the transaction if we believe in good faith that doing so may”, “breach local or international laws such as Anti-Money Laundering or sanctions regulations;”, “cause you or us to lose money (eg. a fraudulent transaction or scam); or”, “expose you or us to unreasonable risk”.
• Paragraph starting with “In some circumstances, we may also suspend your access...” will be removed.
• In paragraph starting with “Where reasonably possible, we may contact you to discuss...”, the last sentence “If we have refused to process a transaction in good faith, we won’t be liable for any loss or damage suffered.” will be removed.
• On page 11, the heading ‘Delayed payment’ will be replaced with “Requests for information”.
• In the second paragraph under this heading, the line “This is known as a delayed payment” will be removed.
• Under the heading ‘Outward International Money Transfer (IMT)’, the sub-heading ‘How we use your information’ and all paragraphs and dot points will be removed.
• New sentence added “When sending an IMTs, the sender and receiver address provided must be the full business or residential street address (not a post office box).”
• Under the sub-heading ‘Payment returns, amendments or cancellations’, the line “if applicable laws in Australia or overseas permit,” will be added. “must” will be replaced with “will”. “Relevant laws allow,” will be added, and “We’ll” will be replaced by “we’ll”.
• The last sentence, “We won’t be liable for any losses or damages caused by the return of an IMT.” will be removed.
• On page 12, under heading ‘How to request an IMT investigation’, in the first paragraph, “usually” will be replaced with “is generally”, “takes” will be replaced with “paid to the beneficiary within”, “to process” will be replaced with “from the time we have received your payment instruction.” The last sentence will add “or if affected by one of the reasons above in More about correspondent banks.”
• The heading ‘Limitation of liability’ and proceeding paragraphs and dot points have been updated “We won’t be liable for any losses or damage caused by taking any actions referred to in the Guide, such as declining a transaction, delay in processing a transaction or the return of an IMT.  Specifically, we’re not liable for any:”
• Dot points added “loss caused by us acting on your instructions in good faith, unless the loss was caused by our fraud, negligence or willful misconduct,” and “delays by other banks in paying your recipient.”
• Paragraph added “Where we agree to supply services to you as a consumer, as defined in the Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act 2001 (the Act), then to the extent permitted under the Act, our liability in relation to any loss you have suffered as a consumer is limited to supplying of the services again or the cost of providing the relevant services again. Nothing in this document shall be taken to exclude liability, which may not be excluded under the Act.”

Things you should know

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• International Payments Information Guide

Effective 24 May 2024, the current terms and conditions for CommBank’s "Standard fees and charges for international payments and travel funds" will be amended as set out below.

On page 2, the table ‘Sending money’ will be changed with the following updates:

• On the second row, "^From 1 June, 2023 IMTs previously charged at $6 will be waived" will be deleted. '$6.00^ per transfer" will be amended to 'Waived’.
• On the third row, '$22.00 per transfer’ will be amended to '$30.00 per transfer’.
• On the fourth row, "^From 1 June, 2023 IMTs previously charged at $6 will be waived" will be deleted. '$6.00^ per transfer" will be amended to 'Waived’.

Things you should know

Access the new PDF version of the terms and conditions

• Standard fees and charges for international payments and travel funds

Effective 15 July 2024, the current terms and conditions for CommBank’s “IMT Terms and Conditions for NetBank and the CommBank App” will be amended as set out below.

• On page 1, point 4, “first time” has been updated to “first-time” and the last sentence has been added “When sending an IMT, the sender and receiver address provided must be the full business or residential street address (not a post office box)”

Things you should know

Access the new PDF version of the terms and conditions..

• IMT Terms and Conditions for NetBank and CommBank App

Effective 30 April 2024, this service is no longer available.

Effective 8 August 2022, the current terms and conditions for CommBank’s “International Money Transfers Terms & Conditions” (Branch Printed version) will be amended as set out below.

Update of points under heading “Section 4 – Terms and Conditions” on page 2 and 3 to simplify the sender/remitter’s agreement when sending an IMT from the Branch. Details are set out below;

• First line on page 2 has removed “(you)” and replaced to now read as “The Sender/Remitter agrees:…”
• Point 1 on page 2, wording “International Money Transfer (IMT)” has been removed at the end of this line.
• Point 2 on page 2, wording “will be” has been replaced with “are” on the first line of this point. ”(T&C)” has been added to the second line after “terms and conditions”. The last line stating “all are available on the CommBank website or” have been removed and replaced with “T&C and PDS are able to be requested at Branch.”
• Point 3 on page 2, has been updated with “Money sent overseas is usually available to the beneficiary within three (3) business days of the Bank accepting your instructions. Delays on this timing can be due to numerous reasons outside of the Bank’s control such as the regulatory requirements and market practices of overseas banks, market disruptions impacting either payment processing or funding, system outages at the Bank, a correspondent or beneficiary bank, screening processes associated with international sanctions, additional controls and screening on first time beneficiaries or the currency of the payment is not the local currency of the destination country”
• Point 4 on page 2, has removed the wording “and this is the rate that will apply to your payment”
• Point 5 on page 2, has been updated with We are not liable for:
  • any loss (including consequential loss) suffered by you as a result of us acting on your instructions in good faith except where our negligence, fraud or wilful misconduct causes the loss; or
  • any costs or losses arising from the actions of other banks
• Point 6 on page 2, removal of the last sentence “We may offer you the option for us to request that all charges be directed to us instead of being deducted from your payment for a fee, in which case we will absorb these costs, however other banks may ignore our instructions in which case we are liable only to the extend to the amount deducted” and now reads as “Other banks may charge processing fees which they may deduct from the payment. For cross-currency IMTs, we will absorb any correspondent bank fees, however other banks may ignore our instruction in which case we are liable only to the extent of the amount deducted. If the other banks charge CBA instead, you must reimburse us for charged fees.”
• Point 7 on page 2, has been updated to “Other banks may convert a payment to a different currency to reach the beneficiary bank. This can occur specifically if the payment is not in the local currency of the country the payment is being sent to. This conversion may happen even if we request the correspondent bank not to convert the payment. If this happens, the CommBank is not liable for any losses resulting to you or the beneficiary.”
• Point 8 on page 3, removal of wording “our fees, and costs we incur to make enquiries to other banks regarding a payment trace, amendment or cancellation as..” and now reads as “There are fees associated with international money transfers you must pay. These fees are set out in our brochure Standard fees and Charges for International Payment and Travel Funds.”
• Point 9 on page 3, has been updated to read “In some circumstances, we may also suspend your access to electronic banking or not process a transaction, without having to provide you notice, where we reasonably consider it is necessary to comply with, for example, our financial crimes policies, any laws in Australian or overseas, or to manage any risk. Where reasonably possible, we may contact you to discuss the details of your transaction. We will not be liable for any loss or damage suffered where we have refused to process a transaction in good faith.”
• Point 10 on page 3, has been updated to read “We collect personal information to identify you for the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006. To complete an international payment we will need to transfer personal information to banks outside of Australia as set out in the International Payments Guide.”
• Point 11 on page 3, has been updated to read “If your payment is refused for any reason, we must accept any proceeds that are returned to you. We may credit these funds to an FCA in the same name as the originating account and in the same currency as the returned funds (if you have one) or to the originating account (funds are converted back to that account currency using our applicable foreign exchange rate on the day the funds are credited to your account) – unless you tell us otherwise. The Bank will not be liable for any losses or damage as a result of the return of funds.”
• Point 12 on page 3 beginning with “If any provisions of this agreement is found to be illegal, void or unenforceable …” has been removed.
• Point 13 on page 3, has been updated to be point 12. Wording on the last line stating “where relevant to your service is you are a small business or an individual.” has been removed and updated to now read as “The Banking Code of Practice applies to accounts that are held by individuals or small business customers”
• Point 14 on page 3, has been updated to be point 13. Wording remains unchanged. 

Things you should know

You can access the new printout of the terms and conditions at your nearest Branch.