2009 Corporate Responsibility Review
Getting The Fundamentals Right
CUSTOMER
Delivering clear
value and quality
service
Summary of the year
In a year of global financial turmoil, our first responsibility has been to provide our customers with safe and secure banking they can rely on. We've supported small business, kept lines of credit open to home buyers, and ensured our customers have continued access to our broad range of financial products and services.
At the same time, we've taken the opportunity to address some of our customers' concerns, particularly in relation to fees, access, hardship and transparency.
This year we were the first major bank in Australia and New Zealand to abolish overdrawn account fees on personal accounts. Our customers complained about these fees more than any other issue, and getting rid of them was the right decision for us because it was the right decision for them.
We also doubled our network of automatic teller machines (ATMs) for our Australian customers through a new alliance with rediATM. With over 3,100 ATMs now in our Australian network, our customers should save more than $10 million from foreign ATM fees.
In view of the economic uncertainty associated with the global financial crisis we established the Financial Solutions Unit in the UK, and significantly increased the hardship team in Australia. We also invited 50,000 business customers in Australia to attend seminars and workshops so we could connect them with the latest advice and information, in order to help them make informed decisions about the future.
We have improved the transparency of our communications with customers about the factors affecting interest rate movements. And at MLC, we've continued to lead the wealth management industry through our transparent fee for service pricing model.
