Amid the obvious focus on ANZ’s decision to defer its decision on dividends the bank is quietly preparing the way to make more money from your data.
Former Woolworths executive Emma Gray was promoted to the top executive ranks, highlighting the focus.
The COVID-19 crisis has highlighted the trend towards a cashless payments system with many stores refusing to take your cash, which in turn gives the bank more information on what you spend your money on.
This allows the bank to target you for products and services, say a home loan, if your spending patterns suggest you are saving for a deposit. By knowing you use Energy Australia for your gas and electricity, for example, ANZ can have a chat to Origin and can perhaps suggest there’s a loss of market share in Victoria, and perhaps suggest a little joint marketing.
Open banking comes into force in June. It will allow the customer more power to take his or her custom elsewhere.
The banks are taking different tacks on how they are treating customers affected by COVID-19.
About 105,000 ANZ customers have asked for a freeze on their mortgage because they have lost their job, hopefully for just a few weeks.
After three months, ANZ will contact customers to see how they are going and some will say not well and have to be classed as problems: 11 per cent of ANZ’s home loan customers, accounting for 14 per cent of its home loans, have asked for the deferral.
The customers in hardship might cost the bank, but if you simply start your payments again, the bank simply extends the length of your loan and doesn’t lose a cent.
The bank has made out like it’s the hero when it is really doing not much and in fact if the economy does recovery quickly, it’s better for the bank because its home loan book rises.
Likewise, CBA boss “Magic” Matt Comyn will shortly move all home loan customers onto their minimum monthly payment and the only way to pay a little more is to actually call the bank and resurrect your past payments.
By automatically forcing everyone to pay less, Comyn is giving all his customers more spending money, which is good for the economy as people spend, and also good for CBA because the loan book total will increase on zero risk.
Everyone wins perhaps, except for the customer.
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