Banking royal commission: ANZ ‘took months’ to set up basic account, opened superfluous

ANZ took months to open a basic account for an Aboriginal woman after starting accounts she didn’t ask for, inquiry told.

Thy Do has been giving evidence at the banking royal commission in Darwin. Picture: AAP

ANZ took “four months” to finally open a basic account for an Aboriginal woman who lived in a community 100km outside Katherine, after opening a number of superfluous accounts the customer did not ask for, the royal commission has heard.

Thy Do, a senior family support worker at Save The Children, told the royal commission on Thursday of her struggles to open an Access Basic account with the bank on behalf of a client, a single mother of three children who had difficulty with English and relied on Centrelink benefits for income.

“It’s been a long, confusing, frustrating process,” Ms Do told the royal commission, which is holding its hearing this week in Darwin as it probes financial service dealings with indigenous Australians.

Ms Do said the client was trying to open a basic account which didn’t attract fees or overdraft charges, after discovering she had been unknowingly charged regular direct debits for a photography package scam, which has been known to target Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Ms Do said she had been told by a staff member at the ANZ Katherine branch the bank no longer offered the account, but when she called the ANZ call centre she was informed it did, in fact, exist. She said after returning some time later, after a booking was required by the bank to organise a meeting, ANZ opened a Progress Saver account, which was attached to an Access Advantage that attracted monthly fees and overdraw fees.

Later it was discovered ANZ had opened a third account type for the customer, which was a Pensioner Advantage account, but when the customer when to change the account she was told she couldn’t use her password verification and would have to return to Katherine. By March this year, Ms Do had lodged a formal complaint with the bank and contacted the Australian Securities & Investments Commission’s indigenous Outreach program.

The customer was eventually set up with a Access Basic account, but was unable to use the account because the access card had not been sent out, the royal commission heard. Ms Do said that “to her knowledge” the customer still cannot use the account.

Counsel assisting Rowena Orr asked if the process had taken “about four months” to open the Access Basic account despite the client’s eligibility for the product.

“It never crossed my mind that it would take that much time to open a bank account,” Ms Do said.

ANZ’s lawyer Kate Williams SC probed Ms Do’s statement and her verbal testimony in several instances. Ms Williams took issue with Ms Do’s evidence that the Katherine banker had told her the Access Basic account was not available to new customers. Ms Williams said that in her spoken testimony, Ms Do remarked that she could not recall what the banker said.

“I suggest that you are mistaken on this occasion that you are mistaken,” Ms Williams said.

Ms Do rebuked a separate line of questioning from Ms Williams over testimony that the ANZ banker told her the Access Basic account wasn’t able to be opened. Ms Do said she recalled the banker was typing on the computer when she was informed the account could not be opened.

ANZ is yet to face questioning at the royal commission hearing today.