(Click Below for Senator Lambie’s questioning of ASIC in Senate Estimates Hearings)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XYOg7XLR0M
Independent Senator for Tasmania Jacqui Lambie has called on the Abbot Government to ensure that the Australian corporate watch-dog has sufficient legislative powers to investigate credit card interest rates and ATM fees, after it was revealed in Senate Estimates hearings that ASIC’s “jurisdiction doesn’t extend to the level of interest rates.”
“Its clear that the Government has deliberately left ASIC toothless when it comes to the rate of Credit Card interest – and that failure has to be addressed and fixed. When I asked ASIC if they had received complaints about banks charging 17 per cent on credit cards when the Reserve Bank of Australia had dropped its rates to 2 per cent, ASIC couldn’t answer the question and said they would have to get back to Senator Lambie.
“It’s a 700 per cent mark up and makes Payday Lenders look like charities … are they allowed to charge interest rates at that level?’’ Senator Lambie said.
“When Australians, Tasmanians particularly, are living from pay week to pay week, a 700 per cent or more mark up on credit cards hardly seems moral. ‘’
ASIC admitted while the interest rates were legal, it wasn’t necessarily right for them to be so high and agreed to work with Treasury and investigate credit card interest rates.
“Because it’s obviously something of community concern,’’ ASIC said.
Senator Lambie also highlighted a bank charge of $2.80 per transaction [depending on the bank] for ATM withdrawals as little as $20 was highway robbery for the everyday Australian.
However, ASIC wiped their hands off the issue, stating it was a commercial issue.
Rob Messenger
