A follow up report from the Banking Code Compliance Committee (BCCC) found that Banks have made significant efforts to implement recommendations made by the BCCC in their 2021 Guarantees Report.

The findings demonstrate the value of the ongoing BCCC work in shaping and improving industry behaviour in a way that contributes to positive customer outcomes. It is work that is appreciated by both industry and consumers.

The recommendations made by the BCCC in 2021 were aimed at enhancing compliance with the obligations in the Code and ensuring better outcomes for consumers.

Both reports contained valuable guidance and recommendations to potentially assist all financial firms providing guarantees, not just Code subscribing financial firms. Recommendations included providing better support for vulnerable guarantors, raising staff awareness of Code standards, and strengthened interviews with prospective guarantors.

The report also outlined areas for improvement and found that some banks still lacked controls to monitor and measure newly introduced measures or ensure that they were introduced consistently across operations.

Of the 23 recommendations made in the original 2021 report, there was a lack of progress on three recommendations. These recommendations centred on conducting interviews with prospective guarantors, auditing compliance with Code guarantee obligations, and undertaking more proactive data analysis to identify opportunities for continuous improvement.

Encouragingly, in some instances, the report found that not only did Banks implement the recommendations they had also implemented even higher standards than those required by the Code.

BCCC Chair, Ian Govey AM noted: “It was encouraging to see the industry recognise the importance of the issues we raised and take steps to address our concerns.”