The Commonwealth Bank of Australia was ordered by Australia’s Federal Court to pay a penalty of 150,000 dollars after having increased the credit limit of a known problem gambler.
The bank’s actions were ruled to have breached the National Consumer Credit Protection Act of 2009. The case was brought to court by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).
ASIC investigated the matter after having received a complaint from a certain David Harris, the problem gambler that received an increased credit limit from the bank.
In fact, David Harris revealed that he informed the Commonwealth Bank of Australia back in October 2016 that he had a gambling problem and asked them to keep his credit limit unchanged until he sorts out his addiction.
Despite all that, in January 2017 he asked the bank to increase his credit limit from 27,100 Australian dollars to 35,100 and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia immediately agreed and made the additional funds available.