Check your offset account: Are the banks returning to bastardry?

July 29, 2026 — 2:56pm

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It was eight years ago, during a bruising royal commission, that Australia’s banking industry sustained injury to its image so damaging that it lost the community’s trust.

Now, after several years of rehabilitation efforts by the banks, behavioural creep is emerging again. The latest example is the shortchanging of hundreds of thousands of customers with mortgage offset accounts. The systemic nature of this issue was uncovered by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

The backlash from the royal commission’s revelations of banks’ bad behaviour wiped out a legion of the industry’s board directors and executives on the back of a community shaming exercise.

Fast-forward to this week, and ASIC has identified that banks have recently needed to compensate borrowers to the tune of $55 million for interest they........

© The Sydney Morning Herald