Information for bank and financial institution staff
We can investigate allegations that an adult with impaired decision-making ability in Queensland:
- is being abused or neglected (including self-neglect), and/or
- has decision-making arrangements that aren’t suitable or safe.
Managers and staff at banks and other financial institutions are often in an ideal position to detect abuse, including one of the most common forms, financial abuse.
We rely on people like you to ask us to investigate, so we can protect the adult from further harm and minimise your financial institution’s losses.
As part of an investigation, we may ask you to provide us with a customer’s account details and transaction history, regardless of whether you asked us to investigate.
Find out what you need to know before requesting an investigation.
What should you do if you have concerns?
Follow these steps if you know, or think, your customer is being abused:
1. Talk to your supervisor. There may be processes in place to raise your concerns with the customer’s decision-maker or family, who might be able to resolve the problem informally. Some decision-makers may not be aware of their responsibilities and may benefit from understanding these. You can provide the person an information sheet about their responsibilities .
2. If the issue can’t be resolved informally, anyone can apply to the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT) to:
- appoint a guardian or administrator to make personal or financial decisions for your customer (if they don’t already have a substitute decision-maker)
- revoke your customer’s substitute decision-maker appointment (e.g., a guardian or administrator) and replace them with someone else if their substitute decision-maker is the one causing harm.
3. If these steps don’t resolve the issue, you can contact us to request an investigation or find out who else can help.
What is financial abuse?
Most of our investigations involve allegations that someone is making inappropriate financial decisions on behalf of an adult who can’t make decisions for themselves.
The person responsible could be either an informal decision-maker; or a formal decision-maker (attorney or administrator).
They’re almost always a family member, usually a grown-up child of the person.
How to recognise abuse
Abuse takes many forms. Learn how to recognise financial and other types of abuse .
Online banking
With online banking, you and your colleagues may have fewer face-to-face interactions with customers. This can make it harder to spot signs of abuse or neglect.
It means banks and other financial institutions need to use more sophisticated methods to identify financial abuse. For example, some institutions are already scrutinising online transactions for suspicious activity of customers in residential aged care.
This scrutiny has helped uncover many cases of financial abuse, leading us to investigate and put a stop to it.
How do you request an investigation?
If the customer you’re concerned about meets our investigation eligibility criteria, you can request an investigation .
We don’t need clear proof, but the more information you can give us in your request, the better. We need sufficient information to confirm that the customer has impaired decision-making ability and is enacting their Enduring Power of Attorney.
How can you support our investigations?
Most of our investigations involve financial abuse, so we often require banks and financial institutions to provide us with customer account information, regardless of whether their staff requested the investigation.
If we ask you for a customer’s account and transaction details, please respond as quickly and comprehensively as possible.
Delays in providing this information can slow down our investigation and leave the customer at risk of further abuse.
Privacy concerns
Staff at banks and other financial institutions often tell us they’re worried about breaching privacy laws by giving us customer information.
However, subclause 6.2(b) of the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) allows personal information to be disclosed if it "is required or authorised by or under an Australian law".
One of these laws, the Public Guardian Act 2014, specifically section 22 of the Act, overrides:
- any restriction, in an Act or common law, about the disclosure or confidentiality of information, including a person's personal information
- any claim of confidentiality or privilege, including a claim based on legal professional privilege.
If you have a different view on the application of the APPs, please let us know.
Please note: We can’t give you legal advice, including what specific obligations your organisation may have under the APPs.
What if a customer with decision-making ability is being coerced?
A customer of yours may have the ability to make their own decisions (capacity) but is being pressured, threatened or intimidated by someone else (e.g. a partner or spouse) to act against their will.
If you’re worried this is happening, there may be other organisations who can help .