ASIC sues CBA over alleged $8.5m in undisclosed fees

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The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has launched civil penalty proceedings against Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), alleging around 42,000 CommBiz…

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has launched civil penalty proceedings against Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), alleging around 42,000 CommBiz business customers were charged approximately $8.5 million in undisclosed fees over five years.

The regulator alleged the bank's terms and conditions applied to Direct Debt amid Direct Credit Transactions, with small businesses among those affected.

Under the alleged arrangement, customers were informed they would pay a fee for payments involving third-party accounts but were also charged an additional fee for corresponding transfers into or out of their own CommBiz accounts.

ASIC commissioner Alan Kirkland said the alleged conduct amounted to a failure to deliver on the bank's commitments to business customers.

"We allege Commonwealth Bank broke a basic promise to its business customers, many of them small businesses, that the fees it told them they would pay were the fees they would actually be charged," Kirkland said.

ASIC alleged the misleading terms were in place for CommBiz's launch in 2006, with customer complaints dating back to at least 2015. A 2016 internal audit reportedly identified overcharging of Direct Debit fees and called for corrective action.

The regulator further alleges CBA's governance arrangements failed to identify and address the issue, and the bank did not act efficiently, honestly and fairly.

CBA stopped charging the relevant fees temporarily in June 2025, amended its CommBiz terms in August that year and has waived the charges since February 2026.

The bank has also completed a redemption program covering customers from December 2006, paying more than $26.4 million in remediation payments to approximately 93,000 CommBiz customers, including around 40,000 small businesses.

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