ASIC has commenced civil penalty proceedings against Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), alleging tens of thousands of CommBiz business customers, many of them small businesses, were overcharged millions of dollars in fees they were never told about.
ASIC alleges CBA’s CommBiz terms and conditions were misleading because they failed to clearly and accurately disclose all the fees business customers would be charged for Direct Debit and Direct Credit payments.
Business customers were told they would be charged a fee for a payment to or from a third-party account.
However, ASIC alleges CBA also charged an additional, undisclosed fee for the corresponding movement of money into or out of the customer’s CommBiz account.
For example, a small business paying the fortnightly wages of 10 employees from two CommBiz accounts was charged 12 fees: 10 for the payments to its employees and another two undisclosed fees for the money being withdrawn from its own accounts.
ASIC alleges that between November 2020 and 31 May 2025, approximately 42,000 CommBiz customers were overcharged approximately $8.5 million in fees.
ASIC Commissioner Alan Kirkland said the alleged conduct represented a failure by Australia’s biggest bank to get the basics right over many years.
‘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.
‘Small businesses are busy enough. They should not have to scrutinise every transaction to make sure that their bank is charging them the right fees.
‘ASIC will continue to take action where banks don’t have the systems and processes in place to deliver on the basic promises they make to their customers,’ Commissioner Kirkland said.
ASIC alleges business customers were overcharged for around 19 years, with the allegedly misleading terms and conditions in place from the launch of CommBiz in 2006.
ASIC further alleges CBA received customer complaints about the issue from at least 2015, while a 2016 internal audit identified overcharging of Direct Debit fees and required corrective action.
ASIC also alleges governance failings at CBA meant the alleged misleading statements were not identified and corrected, and that CBA allegedly failed to act efficiently, honestly and fairly.
‘What makes this particularly concerning is how long the alleged conduct went on, despite customer complaints to Commonwealth Bank pointing to a problem years earlier.
‘This action should serve as a warning to banks that failing to get the basics right will attract ASIC attention,' Commissioner Kirkland said.
ASIC has an enduring enforcement priority targeting systemic failures by large financial institutions resulting in widespread consumer harm and a 2026 enforcement priority focusing on misleading pricing practices, especially in the current cost-of-living environment.
ASIC is seeking declarations, pecuniary penalties, adverse publicity orders, ancillary orders and costs.
The Court has not yet listed the matter for a case management hearing.
Background
CommBiz is CBA’s online banking platform for business customers.
ASIC alleges that, between November 2020 and May 2025, CBA represented to existing and prospective CommBiz customers that a single fee was chargeable and would be charged to a customer for each Direct Credit or Direct Debit and/or that CBA intended to only charge a customer the fee amount for each Direct Credit and each Direct Debit.
However, ASIC alleges that, in addition to the fees charged above, and despite not being disclosed, CBA also intended to charge and in fact charged CommBiz customers a fee for each corresponding CBA account that the CommBiz customer nominated to receive funds into (for Direct Debits) or to pay funds from (for Direct Credits), (referred to as ‘contra leg’ fees).
CBA temporarily ceased charging the relevant fees in June 2025 and amended the CommBiz Terms in August 2025, and since February 2026 has waived the ‘contra leg’ fees for processing Direct Debits and Direct Credits.
CBA has completed a remediation program covering the period from 1 December 2006 to present for past and current CommBiz customers which has resulted in more than $26.4 million in remediation payments to approximately 93,000 CommBiz customers, including around 40,000 small businesses.
If you believe you have been affected by this conduct, and you have not been remediated, please contact CBA.