The comparison rate warning has been reviewed.

There will now be a short warning and a long comparison rate warning. The shortened warning can be used in credit advertising however the long warning must still appear in the comparison rates schedules. The warning should be given in the same form as the comparison rate unless the advertisement is on television, the Internet or other electronic display medium. The two warnings are alternatives (that is, either can be used).

The short warning is as follows: ‘WARNING: This comparison rate is true only for the examples given and may not include all fees and charges. Different terms, fees or other loan amounts might result in a different comparison rate.’

The previous warning in regulation 33C has been adopted as the long warning without amendment. Download the regulations.

The Consumer Law Centre Victoria has published a 90 page report, Unfair Fees:
A report into penalty fees (pdf) charged by Australian banks (the Unfair Fees Report). 

Penalty fees are those fees charged to
customers by banks for customer defaults, for example cheque and direct
debit dishonour fees, account overdrawn fees and credit card late
payment fees.
The
Unfair Fees Report finds that penalty fees charged by Australian banks
could be unlawful under the legal doctrine of penalties if they are out
of all proportion, extravagant and exorbitant in comparison with banks’
costs in processing customer defaults. In addition,
penalty fees are more likely to be levied on low-income consumers, as
they are the least able to avoid the fees.

The Unfair Fees Report makes several recommendations to tackle the problem of penalty fees, including that:

• Australian banks provide information to consumers about their costs in
  processing customer defaults and the income they earn from penalty
  fees;
• Australian banks offer a low-cost Basic Bank Account to low-income consumers that does not levy excessive default fees; and
• The Reserve Bank of Australia undertake a comprehensive study into penalty fees charged by Australian financial institutions.

The Australian Bankers Association has denied the allegations of over-charging.

APRA Chair recently spoke on "The Credit Union Industry- Quo Vadis?" (PDF) at the Australian Credit Union Convention.

In a wide ranging speech (he covered the credit environment, capital, regulation and corporate governance) he concluded that times were good but that credit unions still needed to manage the risks.