Today, the Commonwealth Bank revealed the beginning of a police referral experiment in New South Wales. The experiment, a first for Australia, will establish new guidelines for how banks notify law enforcement of wrongdoing made possible by technology.

In addition to using artificial intelligence and other technologies to identify and prevent abuse in transaction descriptions, CBA is collaborating with the NSW Police to create a new, more efficient procedure that will enable CBA to report abuse with the victim-survivor's cooperation.

When CBA implemented abusive transaction monitoring in June 2020, the automatic filter that restricts the use of foul language in transaction descriptions on the CommBank app and NetBank rejected close to 400,000 transactions each year. An AI model that analyses transactions and yearly identifies 1,500 perpetrators who send potentially offensive texts is added to this technology. The severity of these incidents is then assessed manually to determine what steps CBA should take.

In the pilot, the Next Chapter team will get in touch with the receiving client and ask them if they would like CBA to report the abuse on their behalf to NSW Police if CBA notices a NSW customer is getting recurrent abuse in transaction descriptions. The NSW Police will receive a report from CBA once the consumer has given permission for CBA to do so. Those who have experienced this form of abuse can also get in touch with CBA and request that CBA report the incidents on their behalf.

"The launch of this new pilot with NSW Police will help provide better support for customers experiencing abuse," said Angela Macmillan, Customer Advocate at CBA Group.

Technology-facilitated abuse is still a serious issue, and by working with NSW Police, we are able to take action both in terms of helping victims and in terms of preventing abuse. We anticipate that this groundbreaking initiative between the banking sector and law enforcement will pave the way for even more fruitful cooperation in the struggle against financial and domestic abuse.

"I congratulate CBA and the NSW Police on this collaboration, which means critical information can now be shared when financial transactions are being used to threaten, harass, or intimidate victims of domestic violence," said Anna Bligh, CEO of the Australian Banking Association. The lessons learned from this trial will help police departments and other institutions fight domestic abuse more effectively.

Since 2015, CBA has dedicated itself to assisting victims and survivors of financial abuse caused by domestic and family violence.

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