In a keynote address, the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) set out how its consumer outcomes agenda is shaping supervision, enforcement and transparency across credit, banking and complaints handling, urging internal auditors to identify governance and risk and compliance weaknesses before they translate into consumer harm. The speech framed “customer-first” conduct as embedded in law, pointing to design and distribution obligations as requiring ongoing monitoring to ensure products are designed and distributed for appropriate consumers. ASIC highlighted ongoing action on financial hardship, citing concerns with lenders using “cookie-cutter” approaches and noting enforcement activity involving Westpac, National Australia Bank (including a Federal Court penalty of AUD 15.5 million against NAB and AFSH Nominees), Resimac (alleged “one-size-fits-all” processing) and ANZ (a proposed AUD 40 million hardship-related penalty within a wider AUD 240 million package). It also pointed to surveillance of debt management and credit repair firms, with a separate surveillance of debt collection intended to commence in the coming months and to include credit providers alongside debt buyers and contingent collectors, emphasising that debt collection laws apply to creditors as well as collectors. On “better banking” outcomes, ASIC referenced work that led to refunds of more than AUD 33 million to over 150,000 customers from four banks and a further AUD 60 million committed by 21 banks to more than 770,000 customers, bringing promised refunds since the program began to AUD 93 million. On dispute resolution, ASIC said it is moving from publishing aggregated internal dispute resolution data to publishing firm-level data, with the aim of improving transparency and enabling earlier identification of systemic issues.

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