Efforts of the Australian Payments System Council and Treasury led eventually to an Electronic Funds Transfer Code of Conduct that provides a workable and generally fair allocation of risks and responsibilities. Many of the new payment systems do not fit into this category. For example, the telephone payment system, BPay, does not require the use of a card. The result is an unfortunate disparity of rights which depend upon the form of the payment system being used rather than its function. The Review of the EFT Code of Conduct has recommended that urgent consideration be given to the consumer problems arising from telephone and computer banking.
Most consumers are ill-equipped to evaluate the risks of insolvency of a financial institution.
This was part of the rationale of the old s 16 of the Banking Act 1959 which provided that depositors were to have priority over certain assets of an insolvent bank. 13 Giving priority to deposits is the only direct consumer protection for depositors. Although the idea of depositor insurance has been mooted from time to time, it seems unlikely that it will be adopted in the Australian context. The problem is a serious political one. As the Wallis committee report acknowledged, there is a widespread belief the the Reserve Bank guarantees bank deposits.