Australia’s Watchdog Sues Commonwealth Bank Over A$8.5 Million in Hidden CommBiz Fees

admin · November 12, 2026 · 6 min read

Illustration of a modern bank building and a courthouse representing ASIC's lawsuit against Commonwealth Bank over CommBiz fees

Australia’s corporate regulator has sued Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), the country’s largest bank, alleging it charged about 42,000 business customers A$8.5 million (US$5.82 million) in fees they were never told about. The case, filed in the Federal Court on Wednesday, November 11, 2026, is the first major enforcement action under ASIC Chair Sarah Court, who took office on June 1.

Main Report

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) filed civil penalty proceedings in the Federal Court’s Victoria Registry, alleging that CBA’s CommBiz online banking platform charged business customers a second fee on direct debit and direct credit payments without properly disclosing it.

CommBiz’s terms told customers each payment would cost 27.5 Australian cents, GST included. ASIC says the bank also charged the same amount a second time for the part of the transaction that touched the customer’s own account — a charge it calls a “contra leg” fee.

In one example cited by the regulator, a business paying ten employees from two accounts was charged 12 fees instead of the ten it expected. The extra charge was 25 Australian cents plus goods and services tax.

ASIC alleges the overcharging inside its penalty window — November 12, 2020 to May 31, 2025 — totalled about A$8.5 million across roughly 42,000 customers. The regulator’s filing puts the wider figure much higher: about A$21 million overcharged to about 93,000 customers, including around 40,000 small businesses, going back to CommBiz’s launch in December 2006.

The regulator says the bank’s fee pages were viewed about 2.4 million times, and it treats each view as a separate misleading statement. ASIC is seeking declarations that CBA made false or misleading representations about the price of its services and failed to provide financial services efficiently, honestly and fairly. No case management hearing has been listed yet, and no court has ruled on the claims. The allegations have not been proven.

Background

ASIC says the warning signs were there for years. Customers raised at least 13 serious complaints between 2015 and 2025 about the gap between the advertised fees and the amounts actually charged. A 2016 internal audit identified the overcharging and called for corrective action, according to the regulator.

CBA first notified ASIC of an ongoing investigation on June 23, 2025. The bank temporarily stopped charging the relevant fees that month, amended the CommBiz terms in August 2025 to state that the fee applies to each debit and each credit, with a minimum of two per payment, and has waived the “contra leg” fee since February 2026.

The bank has already repaid more than A$26.4 million to about 93,000 customers, including interest. As of October 20, the median payout was roughly A$85 and the average about A$442.

In an announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange on Thursday, CBA accepted that its fee disclosures “had not been right” and apologised to affected customers. The bank said it had self-reported the matter and cooperated fully with ASIC’s investigation, but added that it does not accept the way some allegations have been framed and expects to defend aspects of the case or work with the regulator to resolve it.

ASIC Commissioner Alan Kirkland said the bank “broke a basic promise” to its business customers, according to the regulator’s release.

Why This Matters

The case matters beyond the dollar figures because CommBiz is CBA’s flagship online platform for medium-to-large businesses, and the alleged practice ran for nearly two decades. For American readers, it is a reminder that fee-disclosure failures are not a uniquely American problem — and that regulators in other major economies are now bringing cases that echo the consumer-protection actions seen in the United States.

The sums are small next to CBA’s scale — the bank reported statutory profit of A$10.91 billion for the year to June 30, 2026 — but the case tests whether a bank can be penalised for a disclosure failure even after it has repaid customers in full. The court, not the regulator, will set any penalty.

The action also lands in a week of heavy financial-sector news. In the United States, the dollar hit a 19-month high this week after hotter-than-expected inflation data pushed up bets on a December rate rise, while MSCI’s decision to remove Strategy from its global indexes put billions of dollars of fund flows at risk.

Latest Developments

The lawsuit is part of a wider crackdown by Australian regulators on the country’s biggest financial institutions. In a separate matter reported this week, National Australia Bank agreed to repay A$169 million in wage underpayments to about 66,000 staff over 14 years, under an enforceable undertaking with the Fair Work Ombudsman that includes a record A$2 million contrition payment, according to AAP.

ASIC’s case against CBA will now move toward a first case management hearing, which has not yet been listed. CBA has left the door open to a negotiated outcome, saying it will defend parts of the claim or keep working with ASIC to resolve it.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CommBiz?

CommBiz is Commonwealth Bank’s online banking platform for business customers, used mainly by medium-to-large businesses for payments, including direct credits and direct debits.

How much were customers allegedly overcharged?

ASIC alleges about A$8.5 million was overcharged to about 42,000 customers between November 2020 and May 2025. Across December 2006 to May 2025, the filing alleges roughly A$21 million was overcharged to about 93,000 customers.

Has Commonwealth Bank repaid customers?

Yes. CBA says it has repaid more than A$26.4 million, including interest, to about 93,000 customers. The median payout was roughly A$85 and the average about A$442 as of October 20.

Has the court decided the case?

No. The allegations have not been tested in court, no liability finding has been made, and no case management hearing has been listed yet.

Final Paragraph

The Federal Court will now decide whether CBA’s fee disclosures broke the law — and whether repayment alone is enough. For the tens of thousands of businesses affected, the case is a test of a simple principle: that the price a bank advertises should be the price it charges. ASIC’s next major cases, and CBA’s defence, will show how far that principle reaches.

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