(24 November 2021 – Australia) CBA has moved to absorb international money transfer (IMT) correspondent bank fees.
Correspondent banks support cross border transfers however they “clip the ticket” with fees from an IMT. In many instances they deduct a percentage of the total which leaves customers with “bill shock” on the value deducted from their international transfer.
CBA is now absorbing these correspondent bank fees for IMTs on behalf of customers, inferring no more surprises from correspondent banks. This change is intended to save the Bank’s customers money and reduce complexity in FX transfers by providing greater pricing transparency and certainty in the end transfer amount.
CBA will absorb correspondent banks fees for all retail IMTs made in NetBank, the CommBank app and in-branch with CommBiz to follow next year.
“Our customers have told us it’s hard to predict the cost of IMTs, especially when correspondent banks around the world deduct fees from a customer’s transfer amount. Last year, we started absorbing these fees from our top four currencies – USD, EUR, GBP and NZD. We received such positive feedback from our customers that we decided to extend it to all of our offered currencies to more than 200 countries” stated CBA Executive General Manager Payments, Ethan Teas.
“We understand it’s been a particularly challenging period for many and IMTs shouldn’t be a point of stress or confusion. We’re continually reviewing our FX costs and working to improve our IMT digital experience for customers. Today’s announcement follows a number of IMT and FX changes from CBA, all designed to simplify the process for our customers, increase transparency and lower fees for anyone wanting to transfer money overseas” Teas added.