Which banks do right by you?

There's more to banking than fees and interest rates. Australians increasingly want good customer service, enhanced scam protection, and innovative and convenient features. Here's a roundup so you can compare offerings.

- STORY TOM WATSON

It may not seem like it, but Australia is home to a diverse banking landscape. There's the Big Four, of course, but there are also international banks, customer-owned banks, regionally focused banks, digital banks and banks that cater to Australians in specific industries.

There are currently 83 authorised deposit-taking institutions (ADIs) operating in the country, according to the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority. That doesn't include subsidiaries; for instance, Bankwest is a subsidiary of the Commonwealth Bank.

There's no shortage of choice either, depending on what you want from your bank. For many, choosing a bank will be a matter of cost. Specifically, how competitive the interest rates and fees are on products such as bank accounts, savings accounts and home loans.

What we want from our banks

When global public opinion and data company YouGov asked Australians, in 2021, what the most important factors were when choosing a financial company, having low or no fees was top of the list.

However, there's more to banking than the cost involved. The same survey revealed that people ranked safety and security as being almost as important as fees. That's hardly surprising when you consider factors such as the adoption of digital banking and the ongoing prevalence of financial scams.

This desire for security is something that banks are well aware of. Michael Lawrence, chief executive of the Customer Owned Banking Association, says that the industry has been working collaboratively on initiatives like the Scam-Safe Accord and others to strengthen protections for customers.

“Australian banks are also currently rolling out the latest scam-fighting technology, Confirmation of Payee (CoP), a new name-matching service designed to protect customers from being tricked into sending money directly to scammers. The service is an added protection for consumers from redirection scams,” he says.