Australian banks are taking measures to ensure the proper functioning of mortgage offset accounts, including investments in new technology platforms, Australian Banking Association CEO Simon Birmingham said on Wednesday.
Birmingham's comments to the media followed an Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) report that found major banks failed to properly manage offset accounts in the two years through August 2025.
During that period, banks paid more than AU$55 million in customer compensation for offset account failures, the ASIC said after reviewing the offset practices of eight banks, including Westpac Banking (ASX:WBC, NZE:WBC), ANZ Group Holdings (ASX:ANZ, NZE:ANZ), Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX:CBA), Macquarie Group (ASX:MQG), AMP's (ASX:AMP) AMP Bank, Credit Union Australia, HSBC Bank Australia, and ING Bank (Australia).
"This report shows that in well over 99% of cases, mortgage offset accounts are working exactly [as] they should be, but it does demonstrate there are some failures," Birmingham said.
"It's a very small proportion of mistakes that have happened, and what ASIC's report shows is it's often due to manual system processes in isolated cases, or communications failures in some cases," Birmingham added.