The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has backtracked and agreed to refund some of the $270 million in excessive fees it charged low-income account holders, following a months-long CHOICE campaign.
In July 2025, the corporate regulator, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), found that a number of banks had charged excessive account-keeping and overdraft fees to customers on Centrelink incomes, who should have automatically been moved to low-fee or no-fee accounts.
While the other banks called out by ASIC moved swiftly to remedy the situation and issue bulk refunds to some affected customers, CommBank flat-out refused for months, with CEO Matt Comyn even telling parliament under questioning that refunding unfair fees would be “appropriating shareholder money”.
But just before Christmas, Australia’s largest bank did an about-face and said that they would begin refunding “relevant concession customers” to the tune of $68 million. Last year the bank posted a $10 billion annual profit.
CommBank has yet to announce any details about which customers will receive refunds and which will miss out.
ASIC Commissioner Alan Kirkland says while he welcomes the change, it is still “disappointing” that some low-income CommBank customers may receive nothing.
“These are people on very low incomes. Any money that comes out of their bank account by way of a fee is money that they haven’t been able to spend on basics like groceries or energy bills,” he says.
CHOICE head of policy Morgan Campbell says that despite the bank’s refusal to refund the full amount, it is still a “big win”.
“CommBank should never have charged these fees in the first place, and we shouldn’t have had to drag them kicking and screaming to make these refunds,” he says.
“More than 27,000 CHOICE supporters signed our petition calling for CommBank to refund this money, and we gave them a Shonky Award in November. Both of these have made a real difference. Together we’ve built so much pressure that one of Australia’s biggest corporations has made a $68 million backflip. That’s huge.”
Campbell is also calling on CommBank to make longer-term changes to their products and processes for customers on low incomes to ensure this never happens again.
Jarni Blakkarly is an award-winning Investigative Journalist at CHOICE. Jarni has worked for news organisations such as SBS, Reuters, Al Jazeera English, ABC 730, Radio National, BBC World Service and Deutsche Welle.
Jarni won the Walkley Foundation's young journalist of the year student category award in 2016 and was the recipient of a Melbourne Press Club Michael Gordon fellowship in 2022. In 2023 he was a highly commended finalist in the Quill Awards and a winner at the 2024 Excellence in Civil Liberties journalism awards. In 2024 he was elected to serve on the Federal Council (National Media Section) of the MEAA. Jarni has a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT). LinkedIn
Jarni Blakkarly is an award-winning Investigative Journalist at CHOICE. Jarni has worked for news organisations such as SBS, Reuters, Al Jazeera English, ABC 730, Radio National, BBC World Service and Deutsche Welle.
Jarni won the Walkley Foundation's young journalist of the year student category award in 2016 and was the recipient of a Melbourne Press Club Michael Gordon fellowship in 2022. In 2023 he was a highly commended finalist in the Quill Awards and a winner at the 2024 Excellence in Civil Liberties journalism awards. In 2024 he was elected to serve on the Federal Council (National Media Section) of the MEAA. Jarni has a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT). LinkedIn
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