Effective 30 September 2025, the current Information Guide titled “International Payments Information Guide” will be amended as set out below.
- On cover page 1, “Foreign Cheques/ Bills (not accepted in any currency from 10 October 2022” will be removed
- On Contents page 2 – Section 2 – Other Information, “Foreign Cheques (not accepted in any currency from 10 October 2022) will be removed
- On page 3, About our services, dot point three “deposit foreign cheques to your accounts (not accepted in any currency for new accounts opened on or after 11 April 2022). Note: For all accounts, Foreign Cheque/ Bills will not be accepted in any currency from 10 October 2022” will be removed
- On page 3, - Privacy - “We collect your personal information to:……to complete transactions…”
and “Examples of how we use and share your information:….”will be amended to
“We collect your personal information and beneficiary personal details to:
- identify you for the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 and other purposes”
- share with third parties to complete and validate transactions
and
“Examples of how we use and share your information:
You give us the authority to disclose you and your beneficiary’s full name, date of birth, address and banking details with banks and other payment agents when we process and/or validate your payment.”
- On page 4, in Section 2 – Other Information, subheading Exchange rates, clause amended to “We provide foreign exchange rates on our website, but please keep in mind that they’re indicative only. Your exchange rate gets worked out will update intermittently to reflect market movement as you finalise your payment details. and A final rate will be applied when your transaction is confirmed – regardless of when we process the payment.”
- On page 4, same section under subheading “Using correspondent banks and their commissions, fees or other charges” will be amended to “Using correspondent banks and payment agents, and their commissions, fees or other charges
- On page 4 under the amended subheading “Using correspondent banks and payment agents and their commissions, fees or other charges” the 2 paragraphs - will be amended to “We may need to use a correspondent bank or a payment agent in processing your payment. A correspondent bank or payment agent provides services to either CommBank or the beneficiary bank, and act as an intermediary to facilitate the international payment. Any bank or payment agent who receives the payment instruction may apply a processing fee, which under market practice, they will deduct from the payment itself.
- For certain currencies we ask the correspondent bank or payment agent to not deduct their processing charges from the payment, but rather direct their processing charges back to us. CommBank will pay these charges on your behalf for transactions where the payment currency is different to the debit currency (cross-currency) for selected currencies. This does not include any charges deducted by beneficiary banks.”
- Under “Please Note: CommBank is not liable …of other banks, including those we have appointed as correspondent banks” will be amended to “Please Note: Except where caused by our negligence, fraud, or wilful misconduct CommBank is not liable for any costs or losses arising from the actions of other banks or payment agents, including those we have appointed as correspondent banks and payment agents.
- On page 4, in Section 2 – Other Information, subheading “More about correspondent banks” and under first paragraph “Correspondent banks may convert a payment..”, will be amended to “subheading “More about correspondent banks and payment agents” and first paragraph will be amended to “Correspondent banks or payment agents may convert a payment to a different currency to reach the beneficiary.” Sentence three starting with “For example, a payment…” will be amended to “For example, a payment being sent in Australian dollars to New Zealand. This conversion may happen even if we request the correspondent bank or payment agent not to convert the payment. Except where caused by our negligence, fraud or wilful misconduct, CommBank is not liable for any losses resulting to you or the beneficiary.”
- Under amended subheading “More about correspondent banks and payment agents” second paragraph starting with “International payments are generally paid to..” will be amended to “International payments are generally paid to the beneficiary within one (1) to three (3) business days…”
On first dot point “or payment agents” will be added at the end of the sentence
On third dot point, it will be amended to “system outages at CommBank, a correspondent, payment agent or beneficiary bank;”
On fourth dot point “screening and due… overseas banks” will be amended to “screening and due diligence processes undertaken by CommBank, overseas banks and payment agents, associated with international sanctions or a financial crime request, including but not limited to delays connected with:”
- Additional notes “Please Note: the.. Limitation of Liability” will be amended to “Please Note: CommBank is not liable for any loss or damage from the processing of your transaction where we have acted in good faith, except where the loss or damage was due to our fraud, negligence or wilful misconduct. In addition, the correspondent bank and payment agency acts as our agent and owes no obligation to you and you have no right to claim against any correspondent bank and payment agency for services they provide to CommBank. Additional information is provided below under Limitation of liability”
- On page 5, under heading International Money Transfers (IMTs), privacy consent and authorisation, “By using our international services,….” Will be amended to “By using our international services, you’re giving us your authority and consent to disclose your personal information to relevant overseas correspondent banks, payment agents and relevant regulatory authorities. This authority and consent is necessary so we are authorised to complete your instruction to send or receive an IMT and respond to a financial crime request as referred to in More about correspondent banks and payment agents”
- New clause “We have the right to disclose information concerning you or any person named in the payment instruction to process or validate your payment.” will be added
- On page 5, Payment processing and fees, paragraph four, dot point three will be amended to “other reasons referred to in More about correspondent banks and payment agents;”
- On page 6, Requests for Information, paragraph 2, will be amended to “If we can’t confirm your instructions or your identity to our satisfaction, then we may delay, block or refuse to process the payment where required by law or risk policy. We will notify you where possible. In this case, CommBank won’t be liable for any costs, losses or damages caused or suffered as a result except where the losses and damages are caused by our negligence.
- On page 6, “To receive a payment for an inward IMT… your BSB number, account number, account name and full business or residential street address..” will be amended to “To receive an IMT … your 6 digit BSB and 8 digit account number (card numbers are not accepted) and full business or residential street address (not being a post office box)”
- On page 6, paragraph 3 last sentence to be amended to “If this happens, we won’t be liable for any resulting loss incurred, unless caused by our own error, negligence, or failure to act reasonably.
- On page 6, “When sending an IMT,…” will be amended to “When sending an International Money Transfer (IMT), it is essential to provide full and accurate beneficiary details. The required information includes:
- Full Name: The beneficiary's full legal name must be provided. Nicknames or abbreviations are not acceptable;
- Residential or Business Street Address: A complete residential or business street address of the beneficiary is required. PO Box addresses are not acceptable; and
- Bank Account Details: Depending on the destination country, you may need additional details like IBAN (International Bank Account Number), SWIFT/BIC (Bank Identifier Code), and / or Local Clearing Identifier/Code
- On page 7, sentence starting with “An IMT is generally paid to the beneficiary...” will be amended to “An IMT is generally paid to the beneficiary within one (1) to three (3) business days from the time we have received your payment instruction. It may however take longer depending on your recipient’s country and bank or if affected by one of the reasons above in More about correspondent banks or payment agents.”
- On page 7, sentence starting with “For investigations relating to both Inward and Outward IMTs…” will be amended to “For investigations relating to both Inward and Outward IMTs we will contact you via the email address that you provide us or via CommBank’s messaging channels available to you, so it is important to ensure that you keep your contact details up to date. If your recipient does not receive your transfer, or you wish to change or cancel your IMT, you can request that a trace/amendment/cancellation be placed on the IMT by:”
- On page 7, paragraphs under the heading “Foreign cheques (not accepted in any currency from 10 October 2022”, including sub header “Dishonours...”, to sub header “Missing consignments” will be removed
- On page 7, paragraph four “This form can be used.. using the CommBank app” will be amended to “This form can be used for IMTs sent in NetBank within the last 6 months. This form cannot be used for IMTs sent from an account that requires authorization from more than one account holder. Please note that amendment requests are not available for IMTs sent via payment agents using the CommBank app.”
- On page 7, Limitation of Liability, second paragraph to be amended to “If any guarantee, term, condition or warranty is implied or imposed in relation to these terms and conditions under the Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act 2001 or any other applicable legislation (a Non-Excludable Provision) and we are able to limit your remedy for a breach of the Non-Excludable Provision, then our liability for breach of the Non-Excludable Provision is limited to supplying of the services again, or the payment of the cost of having the services supplied again.”
