The New South Wales government-backed Consumer Credit Legal Centre has described the Commonwealth Bank as the worst offender in terms of irresponsible credit card lending, based on the cases it sees.
"Commonwealth Bank is over-represented on our case work for irresponsible lending relating to credit cards," the centre's principal solicitor Katherine Lane said.
"In other words we do more matters involving the Commonwealth Bank on irresponsible lending than any other bank." She said that of the cases the centre came across relating to irresponsible credit card lending, most involved unsolicited limit increases by CBA.
Ms Lane pointed to one recent case involving the bank, where a person who was on social security received a credit card limit increase to $27,000.
She also said that the centre's advice line was over-represented by CBA, with people calling in due to financial hardship or irresponsible lending claims.
"Commonwealth Bank is one of the banks that we see most of the financial hardship stuff ... and limit increases that could be argued to be irresponsible," she said.
A CBA spokesman said: "We take responsible lending very seriously and have policies in place to assist our customers to understand the circumstances when these offers are made. Our policies preclude lending to customers on a fixed income and our approval process takes into account customers' past repayment history and ability to repay.
"What that means is that no one will get an offer if they have defaulted in the past or missed a repayment ... they just won't get an offer.
"The people that get the offers have all had sound repayment histories and they have kept within the terms of their credit card."
The latest Reserve Bank of Australia statistics show that the nation's personal credit card debt is $35.6 billion.
Federal Treasurer Peter Costello met the head of the major banks last year and warned them against lowering their credit standards.
Ms Lane called on CBA to introduce a new code of conduct, similar to that of its rival, ANZ.
The CBA spokesman said that the bank had a hardship service area and that the bank met "everything that ANZ does -- the only thing that we've not done is put it in writing".The Australian.
Source: AAP
