Commonwealth Bank Executive General Manager Retail Banking Services, Mark Jones said:

We welcome the announcement by ASIC to review school banking programs in primary schools.  We look forward to providing information about our involvement and hearing the range of views from other interested stakeholders. CommBank fully supports initiatives that promote financial literacy.

Participation in CommBank’s 87-year old School Banking program is voluntary for schools, and parents.

As part of the School Banking program, students receive a savings account into which they can deposit money. The program is designed to encourage regular savings behaviour and good money habits. (CommBank does not charge fees or market credit products to any customers under 18 years old.)

CommBank also makes a payment to schools based on the number of participating students, and the frequency of their deposits. The payments recognise schools’ administrative involvement in the program and the time of around 10,000 program volunteers. So far this year, schools have on average received $500. In most cases these payments generally go towards school sporting equipment or books in the school library.

CommBank is continuing to make changes to the program based on broad-based input from schools, P&C groups and community organisations. In this context, we welcome ASIC’s review.