Australia’s tight-knit group of consumer activists got a shock this month when the Australian Financial Complaints Authority quietly published a ruling in favour of a customer at HSBC Bank Australia caught up in a financial scam.

The dispute resolution process resulted in HSBC being forced to reimburse the $47,028.45 stolen from the customer’s offset account, plus a year’s interest on that amount, plus $1000 to compensate for HSBC’s breaches of the Banking Code and another $5000 to cover two thirds of the customer’s legal fees.