ABA CEO interview with ABC Brisbane’s Loretta Ryan and Craig Zonca on ID verification checks

E&OE 
Radio Interview 
ABC Brisbane 
6 October 2026  

Topics: Australia’s anti-money laundering laws; ID verification checks 

Loretta Ryan: So, we wanted to find out if this is part of the brave new world in which we live, and whether the watchful eye over our money is actually robbing us of the access to it. Simon Birmingham was once our federal finance minister. He’s now the CEO of the Australian Banking Association. Simon, good morning. 

Simon Birmingham: Good morning, Loretta. Good morning, Craig and your listeners. 

Loretta Ryan: Look, there’s a lot of frustration over this out there. Are you hearing similar stories? 

Simon Birmingham: Loretta, we certainly have heard similar stories in terms of people’s concerns and frustrations, and I think it’s always important in these to step back and firstly try to understand why it is that any of this happens. Australia has some of the toughest anti-money laundering laws in the world. We do so to try to keep a suppression in Australia on organized crime, criminal syndicates, and those who would seek to illegally move money around. Banks support, of course, the intent of that, but the laws are not the banks’ laws; they’re the nation’s laws. Banks, though, have to uphold and enforce those laws, and they were tightened over the last year or so and require banks to go even further into their analysis of who their customers are and where the wealth and funds of those customers come from, in an attempt to further restrict those criminal activities and anti-money laundering across the country. 

Loretta Ryan: But it seems the banks are so quick to just suspend the accounts of people, from what we heard yesterday on our calls and texts. Why is that? 

Simon Birmingham: Well, that should only occur after people have been asked and reminded to take certain steps in terms of proving their identity, providing that information that the law requires to the bank, providing information about source of funds or other things that might be identified as being necessary now. Overwhelmingly, most people do work through that process, but obviously there are cases, and it can be tricky. You know, a family member of mine received the email from the bank and contacted me, and her first reaction was, “Is this is a scam?” And so banks are grappling with the fact that, on the one hand, they’re having to ask people for information, all at the same time as we are absolutely consistently reminding people not to click on unidentified links and to be very careful in relation to scams. And so, I understand the sensitivities that exist when people receive this, and it’s absolutely critical that yes, the information needs to be provided, but you also need to make sure you’re doing it through your known, trusted, credible bank sources, and that can cause confusion with people. But if in doubt, please use the app on your phone or your digital banking or online banking, if that’s possible for you. If not, then pick up the phone or go into a branch if it’s a bank that you bank with that has branches near you. 

Loretta Ryan: Well, there’s the problem, because pick up the phone, go to an app, you can’t find a branch to go to Simon anymore. We don’t have them. You can’t sit down and talk to someone. So, this is adding to the problem for people. 

Simon Birmingham: Well, Loretta, we may have fewer branches than we had before, but there are still thousands of branches. People use them a lot less because close to 99% of all bank transactions now do happen digitally. Consumers have moved. Most people will indeed complete these types of ID checks on their phone quite simply, and that is how the vast majority choose to engage with their banks, and that has changed the market dynamics. Some of the fastest-growing parts of the market share in Australia are digital-only banks, banks that never have had and don’t offer branches as part of their service, but customers choose them. That’s just part of a competitive environment that we operate in. But branches do exist still in many cases, and indeed, working through those processes, I say, banks don’t write the laws, but they do have a need to uphold them. Some of the biggest penalties ever applied in Australia against banks have been when they have failed to effectively uphold anti-money laundering laws. So, they take what the government and AUSTRAC, the financial crime agency, put down very seriously and try very hard to make sure that they are enforcing those. And yes, it is an irritant for customers. I do ask people please be mindful that the bank employee you might speak to on the phone isn’t the person who’s written those laws. They are also seeking to simply uphold them. 

Craig Zonca: Yeah, and the bank employee also isn’t the CEO of the bank, who a few of us would like to have a word to, by the sound and the frustrations that we heard yesterday. Simon Birmingham is with you, the CEO of the Australian Banking Association. Simon, we’ve just got Annette on the phone who has a question, particularly around the level of ID checking that’s going on. Annette, what did you want to ask here? 

Annette (Caller): Hi Craig, Loretta, and Simon. I went through an example of this in February this year through ANZ KYC, which is short for ‘Know Your Customer.’ I received a text and an email, and I ignored them because they were scams. I live on my own, I’ve been banking with the bank for 40-plus years, and what the bank should say is, “Go to your local branch straight away,” because they have educated us not to click on links in SMSs and emails. That is my point. And if they don’t have enough branches open, then open some more again, because they can sure afford it. 

Craig Zonca: Yeah, so Simon, can I get your response there? Because there seems to be that real want for face-to-face connection, particularly at a time where we’re so sceptical of any of that online and text message style communication that we’re getting right now. 

Simon Birmingham: Yeah, indeed. As I say, I fully understand the concern people have when they receive those messages. I had to do my own KYC and Know Your Customer checks within the last 12 months, similarly received those messages. But what the messages I received encouraged me to do was to open my normal banking app, and I opened my app that I use pretty much every day for other banking needs. I was then able to go through relatively straightforward in terms of providing the information that was necessary. So that is why I say: make sure it’s your trusted sources, your known sources. Now, ANZ, along with other of the major established banks, do still have branches, and people are absolutely free to go into those branches as well and seek to conclude the identification processes. As was said, we understand these are irritants to customers and they’re bugbears. They’re bugbears that, in many cases, banks would sometimes rather not irritate their customers with. But banks absolutely have to comply with the laws of the land and make sure that they are keeping those records up to date as those anti-money laundering laws require. But there are different pathways that people can choose as to how they complete these checks. What you’ll find is very rarely will a bank say “click on a random link.” What they will usually say is “log into your internet banking, use your known bank app.” Those are the ways if you’re doing it online. Or, if you want to do it in person and you’re with one of those banks that has branches, then absolutely you can go there. 

Loretta Ryan: Again, I come back to that problem, and as we’ve got on the text line: what about the many older people not comfortable with apps? Every time they hear the word “app”, it’s another app. What about them? You say go into a bank; what if they can’t get to a bank? Their nearby bank has been shut down, which has happened in a lot of suburbs now where people are living. What can you say to those older people who are actually scared to get onto the internet and can’t navigate it, Simon? 

Simon Birmingham: Loretta, yes, as fewer and fewer Australians use branches less and less, there have been branch closures. But in those cases, then phone banking or phone services do remain available. 

Loretta Ryan: And then you’re hanging on, Simon, you’re hanging on for phone banking? 

Simon Birmingham: Indeed. Look, there are lessons, I understand. I heard from Noel or read his column over the weekend as well, and those types of experiences aren’t satisfactory. There are absolutely lessons to continue to learn. New tools are allowing some of those wait times on phones to come down significantly in a number of cases, and banks are continuing to invest in ways to bring those wait times down and to cut the times for people. So that is something people and banks certainly recognise is an issue, and one of the things that, in terms of trying to provide those services to all Australians, is necessary – be it vulnerable people who may not be able to physically get to a branch and therefore need to be able to have assistance at the end of the phone. That is one part of the solution mix that has to be there. 

Craig Zonca: Appreciate you taking our call today, Simon. Thanks so much. 

Simon Birmingham: No problems. Thank you both. My pleasure. 

Ends