The chief executive of Australia’s largest bank has angrily denied scamming customers over card payment fees as Australia moves towards a cashless society.
Commonwealth Bank chief executive Matt Comyn was confronted with the costs in the House of Representatives economics committee on Thursday.
“The marginal costs of electronic and digital payments have fallen significantly and those cost savings have largely been passed on to consumers,” he told the hearing in Canberra on Thursday.
The debate heated up when first-term Labour Party member Jerome Laxale asked whether digital cost savings were actually being passed on to consumers. To which Comryn replied: ‘Absolutely.’
“All evidence will show…,” he said.
Mr Laxale interrupted him and laughed: ‘That’s not a saving.’
Tensions rose when the Labor MP held up a Mastercard with a $5.08 card and a $5 note to highlight the usual 8p charge for a small transaction.
“That’s not a saving,” Mr Laxale said again.
Commonwealth Bank CEO Matt Comyn was adamant that people who paid with digital payments would now pay less for each transaction
The debate heated up when first-term Labour backbencher Jerome Laxale questioned whether the digital cost savings had really been passed on to consumers
Mr Comyn rejected his argument and closed his eyes in an attempt to contain his anger at the Commons MPs.
“It’s a false comparison and I’m certainly not making it about you: I find it quite disturbing in the context of this story. This is not about the Commonwealth Bank, but I see this time and time again,” he said.
‘Businesses in Australia are represented in this false dichotomy time and again.
“That a company, in order to earn some kind of income or profit, is often diverted – or directly related and not necessarily by you, Mr. Laxale, but on a daily basis – somehow this is unfairly forced upon consumers. I think that this kind of, ongoing, often factual rhetoric that is increasingly widely publicized is very damaging.
“And I say damaging insofar as – it’s really undermining trust in institutions, in all of our institutions. It’s a real cause for concern.”
For much of the hearing, Mr Comyn looked down the table rather than directly at the MPs questioning him.
Commonwealth Bank CEO Matt Comyn told a tense hearing in Canberra that Australians who rely on digital payments are now paying less for each transaction
Price comparison website Canstar revealed in February that total card costs rose by $400 million last year to a staggering $4 billion.
It is estimated that Australians spend an average of $140 on hidden fees.
While inserting a card into an EFTPOS device typically costs a merchant less than 0.5 percent per transaction, using contactless Visa and Mastercard payments can cost as much as 0.5 to 1 percent per transaction for debit cards and 1 to 1.5 percent for credit cards.
On a $100 purchase, the average additional fees are 28c for EFTPOS, 52c for using the Mastercard network, 47c for using Visa and a whopping $1.88 for digital payments provider Square.
Costs are one of the many reasons why more Australians are expressing concerns about the transition to a cashless society, as physical branches and ATMs remain closed.
During the 2022-2023 budget year, According to the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, 424 bank branches have closed.
The number of establishments fell by more than a third, or 37 percent, between June 2017 and June 2023.
Figures from the banking regulator also show that ATMs are being closed en masse, with the number of ATMs falling by 60 percent in just six years.
In one year, 718 ATMs were removed.
The Commonwealth Bank posted a net profit of $9.836 billion in 2023-24, down two percent from the previous financial year.
Mr Comyn earned $10.426 million in 2022-23, based on his total compensation including short-term and long-term incentives.