Weaponising banks against men

Here's Anna Bligh, the CEO of the Australian Banking Association, which has been a major player in this impressive push: "This kind of behaviour is a form of domestic violence. It can be an enabler for partners to keep women trapped in abusive and often dangerous relationships."

Women, women, women. And sure enough, the bank promotions on this subject never feature any male victims but tend to include numerous photographs of miserable, down-trodden women, often of various exotic ethnicities – yet the notion that particular ethnic groups are prone to financial abuse of their women naturally doesn't get a mention. Given the competing sensitivities, virtue signalling in this territory demands a very careful tightrope walk.

So, are men being targeted already? It's hard to tell but Andrew, one of my key researchers, reports an intriguing interrogation which took place after his partner Alison transferred a significant amount of money into his ING transaction account, which they'd planned to shift into a share trading account. Since the amount was beyond his normal transaction limit, Andrew called ING to arrange it. The operator put him on hold and then transferred him to her supervisor.

To his surprise, the supervisor quickly started grilling him about Alison's transaction, asking about the nature of their relationship, how close they were, whether they had just broken up and other personal questions. Andrew explained they were friends and declined to answer further questions on the topic. She then threatened to freeze both his accounts with ING. He passed the phone to Alison and asked her to try to sort it out. After an intense conversation, Alison convinced the supervisor not to freeze his accounts. Andrew then took the phone back and said he wished to lodge an official complaint. It was some months later that Andrew received a call from ING called saying that, after investigation, the bank wished to apologise for what had happened.

There's no telling what was really going on here. Perhaps the bank suspected Andrew of being a money mule or involved in some sort of scam. But the intrusive personal questions focussed on the relationship which implies this zealous bank official might have been following the official industry guidelines recommending banks be on the alert for signs they might be dealing with a perpetrator of financial abuse.

Normally, restricting a customer's access to bank accounts would require a very high bar, such as evidence of criminality. But as this legal analysis from the Centre for Women's Economic Safety points out, the feminists think they have this covered. They proudly announce that coming down the pipeline is their new magic bullet – coercive control: "In NSW, recent legislation provides for a new 'coercive control' offence. The NSW legislation criminalises abusive behaviour, including economic abuse, towards current and former intimate partners."

That might just give the banks the muscle they need to justify their actions, which are certainly pushing the envelope when it comes to appropriate behaviour for a financial institution.

Clearly the banks' lawyers believe they have found a way through any regulatory or legal hurdles. When I asked a former senior banking lawyer to examine what the banks are doing, he raised a concerning issue: "How do these banks defend themselves from charges that these are unfair contract terms in relation to financial products which are banned by the ASIC Act? Under recent amendments to unfair contract terms legislation to take effect in November 2023, a person such as a bank cannot include an unfair term in a standard form contract or rely on one that is already in place. Significantly increased penalties will apply for breach. One would have thought that these unilaterally imposed new terms which impose draconian consequences on affected consumers based solely on the bank's view of the facts, with no apparent rights to appeal or prevent the action, are the very definition of unfair contract terms."

You may like to include this vital question in letters of complaint to NAB and CommBank, particularly if you are a customer. And to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) But it's even more important that you all use social media to alert people to what the banks are doing – here's a meme you can use.

Please get back to me if you know of anyone who has been debanked. We are very keen to challenge the bank's activities and need actual cases.