Issue:
In 2018, while I was waiting at the bank counter, the bank teller unexpectedly directed me to make a transaction at the ATM machine for remittance, despite the availability of remittance services at the counter for other customers. Subsequently, I was forced to make the remittance at a CBA bank ATM. Following the completion of the payment transaction at the ATM, I did not receive any loan, and Northwest Nominees Pty Ltd (the lending company) notified me that the funds were withheld for tax reasons. Later, I visited the CBA Bank’s branch seeking assistance. Despite my efforts, CBA Bank only suggested contacting their “online service” or Northwest Nominees Pty Ltd for a refund. Unfortunately, multiple visits to the CBA’s branches did not yield any assistance. Even though I provided relevant evidence, CBA BANK did not “review” this information.
Actions Taken:
I have tried various methods to resolve the dispute, including contacting customer service, visiting branches, and filing complaints with AFCA. Regrettably, CBA Bank has consistently attempted to evade responsibility and has not resolved any issues for customers.
Question: Can they get away with this?The bank requested me to open an account. After opening the account, they refused to provide assistance, citing that "I was not a CBA customer at the time.
Are there any professional lawyers who can provide relevant consultations? For example: human rights law, discrimination law, or the code of banking practice.
I want to commission a journalist to report on the bank’s irresponsible behavior. Would this be a good idea?
Hi @AvriL, welcome to the community and for your first post.
It appears that you have had an unfortunate experience with banking with the Commonwealth Bank.
It would be useful to post some additional clarifying information about:
Who were you making the remittance to?
It appears that you send monies to Northwest Nominees Pty Ltd for some reason. Did you intend to send the money to Northwest Nominees Pty Ltd and for what reason (was it for so it could be used as a loan to someone)?
Have you approached Northwest Nominees Pty Ltd since it appears this is where the funds ended up?
One of CBA’s services (and other banks) is the provision of ATMs. These are multipurpose things that can dispense cash, but also do funds transfers, and accept cash and cheques to be deposited into accounts. These days they are bank independent.
One does not need to be a customer to use one. But I would think over the counter transactions would require one to be a customer.
I once tried to present a cheque at my bank’s branch, and the teller guided me outside to the ATM to show me how to do it.
But really the issue is with whom the money was paid to. If you were not a CBA customer at the time, then the money can’t have come from a CBA account. Surely.
I made a remittance to Northwest Nominees Pty. When issues occurred, I contacted both CBA Bank and Northwest Nominees Pty. CBA Bank only instructed me to contact their online customer service.
Is it reasonable for a bank, which provides product services, to not assist customers in resolving issues?
The bank welcomes both non-bank customers and bank customers to use its product services. However, when issues arise, refusing to provide assistance under the pretext of being a ‘non-customer’ is not reasonable in my opinion. It appears more like shifting responsibility.
If the issue lies with Northwest Nominees, which is an unrelated entity to the Commonwealth Bank, there is little Commonwealth Bank can do.
Resolution should be sought with Northwest Nominees if they received your monies and it was inappropriately assigned when the received it. You suggested above the monies were
The Commonwealth Bank can’t be held accountable for what another business does. This is why resolution with Northwest Nominees is the appropriate course of action.
If there was a problem at the Commonwealth Bank end, such as monies were transferred but never received by Northwest Nominees, then the Commonwealth Bank should investigate where the monies went. This doesn’t appear to be the case as Northwest Nominees received the monies but processed the transaction at their end as having some sort tax implications. This is outside the Commonwealth Banks control and why the bank hasn’t been able to do anything.
The remittance account is with CBA bank. If the bank assists with the investigation promptly, there is a high chance of successfully retrieving the money. Unfortunately, the bank did not provide assistance promptly. To some extent, the bank bears negligence responsibility. I have consulted a lawyer, and it is possible to appeal to the court to recover the money, but it will require a long time and a lots of money.
If you instigated a payment to Northwest Nominees and they acknowledged receipt of the monies, which it appears they have as it was indicated that the transferred monies were 'withheld for tax reasons’.
The Commonwealth Bank can’t be negligent for actions of the business receiving the monies.
Was it a scam?
You haven’t indicated that you are a victim of a scam but transferred the monies for what appeared to be a legitimate reason, and on finding out Northwest Nominees withheld the monies for tax reasons, it is now expected it is the responsibility of the Commonwealth Bank to recover the funds which you legitimately transferred for a particular purpose, but is believed was incorrectly assigned by Northwest Nominees.
As I indicated above, the resolution path should have been with Northwest Nominees to find out why they withheld the monies for tax reasons and what avenues were available to resolve.
Here’s the bottom line: You haven’t provided enough information for anyone other than yourself to form an opinion.
The situation sounds complex. As you have already consulted a lawyer, and presuming that you have fully explained the entire situation to the lawyer, the lawyer is best able to advise on what you can reasonably expect a bank to do and more generally what your options for resolving the situation are. Depending on your personal circumstances Legal Aid may be an option.
This forum does not provide legal advice. Most forum participants are not lawyers and hence cannot do so. I am not a lawyer. Any forum participant who is a lawyer would need to be cautious about expressing any opinion on your matter lest it be construed as “legal advice” when it is not intended as such.
Complaining to AFCA may well be a good step but you don’t say what the outcome of the complaint was.
I do wonder though whether your dispute is actually with Northwest Nominees and not with a bank.
Obviously any mention of the word “tax” suggests that accounting advice may help you but again that would involve consulting someone who is qualified to provide that advice.
Probably. Sometimes ACA is just what a person needs - provided that the facts can be suitably twisted if necessary.
Provided that you can convince a journo to run with your story i.e. that there is at least a prima facie case that the bank has behaved unreasonably, because after all Australians love a bank-bashing story. And provided that you avoid any defamatory statements. And you will need to set out a complete and accurate timeline of all relevant events.
Also
Say what now? Part of your legal advice would include whether any time limits for action have expired. However it also becomes harder to establish facts relating to things that happened longer ago in the past.
Suppose one were to write out a cheque payable to a business as a fee for service, in this case it seems for a loan. And one posted it off, and the business then responded that the money had been received, but there was no loan, and money withheld for ‘tax’ reasons and so no refund.
Would one be expecting Australia Post to chase the business for you getting your money back from the business? They were just facilitating a money transfer from a sender, to a receiver. Pretty much invisible to AP.
I don’t see much difference when it comes to using banking systems using ‘pay anyone’ electronically. A Commbank ATM may have been used, but these are shared between banks now and it is unlikely they have any transaction record since you were not a customer and therefore no account of record.
If the money used was a cheque put into the ATM, then it would go into the cheque clearing system separate from the banks.
If you used another bank’s card in the Commbank ATM, then as a customer of that bank, why not take it up with them if the money sent came from an account with them?
But, as has been said, if this issue goes back to 2018, limitations of time for investigation or action could be long gone.
