FINANCIAL SERVICES ORGANISATIONS ARE AMONG
MOST TRUSTWORTHY ORGANISATIONS – NEW SURVEY

Sydney, 27 October, 2004: The findings of the research into the privacy attitudes of Australians have found that financial services organisations are among the most trustworthy organisations in the community regarding the protection and use of personal information.

The research, conducted for the Office of the Privacy Commissioner by Roy Morgan Research, shows that respondents rate health service providers rate as the most trustworthy, followed by financial organisations and government organisations.

The focus of the research was to examine people’s attitudes to privacy in a number of areas.

The research found that levels of trust for financial services providers have increased since 1994. Respondents were asked to rate how much they trusted financial organisations against a list of other organisations.^[1] Financial organisations rated 42% in 1994, 59% in 2001 and 66% in 2004.

David Bell, Chief Executive of the Australian Bankers’ Association (ABA), said: “Customer trust is one of our most valuable assets and that’s why the banking industry is committed to continuing its tradition of safeguarding financial information about their customers.”

“Banks use new technologies to make their products and services more convenient. At the same time, banks are working to ensure their policies and practices are in sync with customers’ expectations of privacy.”

“The Privacy Act requires banks to disclose privacy policies and gives customers the opportunity to ‘opt out’ of receiving direct marketing material.”

Mr Bell said he was pleased to see that many Australians are taking some action to protect their privacy online. The survey found that 80% of respondents regularly updated anti-virus software and 80% used a firewall.

“I am pleased to see that some consumers are taking these steps to help minimise the risk of online fraud.”

“The first clear protection consumers have is the certain knowledge that banks will never send their customers emails requesting their personal account details.”

“If you receive such a request, it is certain to be bogus and deleting it and informing your bank is a simple and effective precaution,” Mr Bell said.

The ABA is pleased with the consultative approach being taken by the Privacy Commissioner, Karen Curtis, with the private sector, including the banking sector, in the current review of the operation of the private sector provisions of the Privacy Act.

The ABA will be will be making a submission on the Issues Paper which was today released by the Commissioner. The Issues Paper provides a framework for assessing the extent to which the private sector provisions are meeting their objectives.

Notes for editors:

A copy of the Roy Morgan research results is available on the Office of the Privacy Commissioner’s website:

http://privacy.gov.au/business/research/index.html

For further information:

Heather Wellard

Director, Public Relations

Phone: 02 8298 0411

Mobile: 0409 830 439

ENDS

^[1] Respondents were asked to rate how much they trusted the following types of organisations – financial organisations, real estate agents, mail order companies, charities, government organisations, health service providers, market research organisations, retailers and companies selling over the Internet.