Banking apps put our money just a few finger swipes away, and moving money from one account to another is just a few seconds’ work — until something goes wrong.

After disruptions hit some Westpac and Commonwealth Bank customers, a finance and risk management expert is advising Australians to take matters into their own hands.

“This goes beyond who is offering the best deal – it’s about making sure you are going to be able to access your money.”

In the digital-age equivalent of stuffing cash under the mattress, Professor Sheedy, from Macquarie Business School, has warned it’s a matter of people spreading their risk across institutions.

But that’s not to say banks shouldn’t do better.

Professor Sheedy described the response from Westpac as “very disappointing”, noting the bank’s recent releases on their media page list charitable works but nothing of the outages.

“Whatever the cause is, they should be letting their own customers and the market as a whole know — it’s relevant for shareholders,” she said.

“Westpac is very quick to point out all the wonderful stuff they are doing.

Complaints rolling in after Westpac outages, CBA double-charging

Customers of Westpac, and its subsidiaries from St George to Bank of Melbourne, took to social media and wrote to the ABC about the inconveniences of the internet banking and app outages.

While payments and transactions still worked (provided you knew which account you had money in) and customers could visit a branch, the reaction shows just how reliant many are on being able to move money and check their accounts in real-time.

Commonwealth Bank customers were able to log in — but many were left shocked by what they discovered.

Some found their bank accounts overdrawn or had much smaller balances after duplicate transactions were taken from their accounts.

CBA has said any fees charged as a result of customers being affected by the issue will be reimbursed.

The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) has already seen a “decent number” of complaints lodged regarding the incidents at two of the country’s four major banks, lead ombudsman for banking and finance Natalie Cameron told the ABC.

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Can bank customers get compensation?

AFCA primarily awards compensation for financial losses suffered, or as Ms Cameron puts it, “we aim to put people back in the financial position they were in had it not been for the outage [or issue].”

Customers are advised to first contact their bank, which then has 30 days to respond. If this response isn’t satisfactory, then a complaint can be lodged with AFCA.

For financial losses, people will need to provide validation of the loss, such as a record of fees charged or a demand for payment.

But some of the effects might not show up in late fees or penalty notices.

On social media platform X, one mother described the embarrassment of being unable to pay for her groceries at the supermarket check-out, due to the CBA double-charging issue.

Ms Cameron said a complaint likely involves a reasonable level of stress or inconvenience, by its very nature.

But there are some extreme cases where AFCA will consider awarding compensation for non-financial loss.

“It has to be something that goes beyond the normal level of frustration,” she said.

Professor Sheedy argued that the banks should be looking to compensate customers as a matter of ethics — and public relations.

“They’d be keen to manage damage to their reputations.”

Westpac, CBA haven’t revealed cause of issues

The ABC has corresponded with Westpac and CBA but neither bank has provided explanations for what caused the issues.

On the third day Westpac Group customers had reported access problems, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the government had been in contact with the bank.

The treasurer said such an incident “enlivens the cybersecurity part of our government” and noted that more interruptions are occurring in an increasingly digital economy.

“All banks are under constant cyber attack — it’s never ending,” Professor Sheedy said. “Tech problems happen all the time.”

While Professor Sheedy has warned individuals to manage their personal risk by using more than one bank, she said banks need to up their game on risk management.

Bank risk management policies were in the spotlight during the banking royal commission back in 2018, but in the years since, “people start to forget”.

“The trouble with risk management is it always costs more.”

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