TSUNAMI CHARITY DONATIONS

Sydney, 4 January, 2005: On behalf of the ABA and member banks, ABA CEO, David Bell, expresses his deepest sympathy for the victims of the tsunami disaster.

Mr Bell said, “There has been some confusion about whether banks are making money from fees collected on donations to tsunami charity appeals.”

ABA has spoken to five of its largest member banks, and can assure the community that all these banks are either waiving fees altogether or donating collected fees to the charities. There are technical systems reasons why some banks are waiving or rebating fees while others may collect the fees but donate the proceeds.

But, none have a policy to retain fee collections associated with tsunami charity donations. Banks are helping the tsunami crisis in three ways. They are:

1. Waiving fees;

2. Making large corporate donations themselves; and

3. Providing call centre staff and systems to collect donations and transfer the money safely to the charities.

If any customer believes they have paid a fee associated with their charity donation, they should contact their bank.”

For further information:

David Bell
Chief Executive Officer
Phone: 02 8298 0401

ENDS