Delays in wage, welfare payments for Commonwealth Bank customers after major outage
CBA customers are threatening to take their finances elsewhere following a major systems outage, with Aussies complaining that money is not in their accounts. VOTE, HAVE YOUR SAY
Banking
Don't miss out on the headlines from Banking. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Commonwealth Bank customers have unleashed on the financial giant after a major outage took key services offline.
Outraged Aussies took to social media to vent about delays in wage payments and demanded the bank reimburse them for any fees incurred after direct debit were affected during the technical debacle. They also threatened to close their accounts and take their finances elsewhere.
Customers were left unable to pay for items in stores during the outage which began early yesterday afternoon and cardless cash withdrawals were stopped.
It comes as the bank was hit with its second class action in two days.
As of 1am AEST, the Commonwealth Bank released a statement, saying that “services are starting to recover” but there could be “a delay in payments appearing in accounts”.
But issues were still apparent.
“My employer uses Commonwealth bank, hence I rang my bank to find out long my pay will take to hit the account, I was told up to three business days..great I get late fees can’t pay my rent or buy food..what ever happens a simple “sorry for the inconvenience won’t cut it”,” one tweet read.
“Hey #commonwealthbank, I’m not a customer but my employer is, therefore I’ve not received my pay, so when I get late fees for my direct debits are you going to pay them for me?,” another Twitter user questioned.
“#Commbank ok so no compensation just a sorry? Moving banks today :),” a Twitter user wrote.
@Centrelink hi Centrelink. My student payment has not gone through like it does every Friday and I am wondering if yesterday's Commonwealth Bank outage may be an issue or is it Centrelink
— O_o (@rollmeaway200) October 17, 2019
Hey #commonwealthbank, I’m not a customer but my employer is, therefore I’ve not received my pay, so when I get late fees for my direct debits are you going to pay them for me?
— Cat (@Cattyyy_94) October 18, 2019
Centrelink also acknowledged the problem, tweeting it was aware of Commonwealth Bank’s technical issue. It said welfare payments were processed overnight, and told customers to check with the bank if it had not landed in their accounts.
“Hi Centrelink. My student payment has not gone through like it does every Friday and I am wondering if yesterday’s Commonwealth Bank outage may be an issue or is it Centrelink?,” one user asked, with the government organisation responding the delay was likely to do with the Commonwealth Bank’s outage.
A spokesperson for the bank told New Corp: “All services have now been restored. We have made significant progress on processing payments and expect the majority to be completed by the end of today.”
“As we continue to work through the backlog there could be some customers who experience delays. We apologise to any customer who is experiencing a delay and ask them to contact us for assistance.”
Yesterday, some branches were closed amid the debacle, with some of the bank’s call centre services also affected.
The bank apologised for the major systems outage that left customers out of pocket and forced some branches to close.
The issue, which affected bank transfers and other online services, began early on Thursday afternoon and was continuing into Friday morning. The actual cause has not been explained.
CBA reassured its nine million customers that all account payments would be properly processed and its branches would open as usual on Friday.
“We are very sorry for the inconvenience this is causing our customers,” it added.
“We want to assure customers that their accounts are safe.”
Multiple customers took to social media to complain about the inconvenience and a number threatened to close their accounts.
The CommBank app, NetBank payments and BPAY services including PAY-ID payments were affected.
COMMONWEALTH BANK FACES CLASS ACTION
Commonwealth Bank’s Colonial First State has been hit with its second class action in two days, this time over allegations more than 500,000 superannuation members were gouged over fees.
Slater and Gordon has filed class action proceedings in Victoria’s Federal Court alleging that Colonial failed to act in the best interests of FirstChoice Super members and acted unconscionably by charging higher fees to pay so-called grandfathered commissions where no ongoing services were required.
The class action stems from revelations at the financial services royal commission that since 2013, Colonial paid advisers or their licensees more than $400 million in commissions funded by higher fees to superannuation members. Many of the advisers worked for other parts of Commonwealth Bank, which profited from retaining the commissions.
“The Hayne Report found there was no justification for continuing to pay commissions to financial advisers,” Slater and Gordon Special Counsel Nathan Rapoport said.
“Paying these commissions - and as a result charging members higher fees - ripped hundreds of millions of dollars out of members’ retirement savings to profit the financial advisers or the licensees they worked for who were not required to provide any services in exchange.”
Rival law firm Maurice Blackburn on Thursday filed proceedings in the same court alleging that Colonial failed to move $3.2 billion of members’ money into a lower-cost, higher-performing MySuper product in a timely way, acting against the best interest of members and contravening superannuation law. But even that was not the first class action to come Colonial’s way, after Slater and Gordon filed last year over allegedly uncompetitive superannuation returns.
Maurice Blackburn is also running a shareholder class action against Commonwealth Bank related to the share price fall related to AUSTRAC’s money-laundering allegations against CBA, which resulted in the largest civil penalty in Australian corporate history.
And CBA’s CommInsure life insurance unit was this month charged with 87 counts of unlawfully selling life insurance policies over the phone. Commonwealth Bank, whose shares were 0.8 per cent lower shortly before Friday’s close, has been contacted for comment.