Trust is a system, not a size

Like many Australians who own property, I have an offset account. Also like many Australians, trusting the institution that I’ve selected for that offset account is paramount. And why shouldn’t I, or you, trust them?

‍

Eight of Australia's biggest banks. 204,000 loans reviewed. Every single one had failures.

‍

That's the headline from ASIC's latest review into offset account handling across CBA, Westpac, ANZ, Macquarie, AMP, ING, HSBC and Credit Union Australia, a group covering roughly 70% of the home loan market. If you've ever wondered whether the big end of town has this figured out, this is your answer.

‍

As the Founder and CEO of Bridgit, I read these reports closely. They tell you exactly where the industry's weak points sit, and what customers are quietly putting up with without realising it. On top of this, it’s my job to ensure Bridgit never puts consumers at risk, giving them and the brokers we work with, speed and certainty to get them into their next home faster.

‍

‍

A preventable failure

The numbers alone speak volume. Over $55 million paid in compensation since September 2023. 86% of the failures came down to manual staff error. Banks missed 77% of the failures themselves before ASIC forced a formal data request. One bank had an issue running since 2019 before it acted.

‍

That’s nearly six years. 

‍

That's not a one-off mistake. That's a system with no way of catching its own errors. And really, we need to be asking why? Are they complacent because they’ve been dominant in the market? Have they gotten away with it thinking they wouldn’t be found out? With all the tech we have available, why aren’t they investing in it to do better by customers?   

‍

The manual process trap

Here's the root cause, and it's the part that should worry every lender, not just the eight named: banks couldn't reliably track who requested an offset, didn't detect failures as they happened, were slow to fix and pay when they did, and gave customers zero visibility along the way.

‍

Manual processes. No single source of truth. That's the pattern. And that’s where trust has now broken down for customers. 

‍

I call this the manual process trap, because it's not really about competence, some of the most sophisticated institutions in the country fell into it. It's about what happens when a business scales past the point where manual steps and knowledge can keep up. The gap between what the customer thinks is happening and what's actually happening in the back office is where trust quietly erodes.

‍

It's also a warning to others. ASIC has flagged ongoing surveillance of non-bank lending, particularly anywhere there's a regulated component. Every lender, fintech included, should be asking the same question this report forces on the majors: where in our process are we relying on a manual step with no single record behind it? Because that's the exact pattern that just cost the industry $55 million and counting.

‍

Why the timing makes this worse

This lands at a difficult moment for homeowners. Cotality's national Home Value Index fell 0.7% in July, the steepest single-month decline since December 2022. It's no longer a Sydney and Melbourne story, it's a national one.

‍

Auction clearance rates have sat below 50% for most of the past two months, with the market described as the weakest in 30 years. The first weekend of August came in at 48.4% nationally. Properties are taking longer to sell, and the RBA is expected to hold the cash rate at 4.35% on 11 August, with the majors now pushing rate cuts out to 2027 at the earliest.

‍

The timing gap customers face between selling and buying isn't closing. If anything, in today's market, it's stretching. 

‍

What hasn't changed is the equity sitting behind all of this. The median combined capital city house price is still $1.17 million. Most people who bought before 2022 are sitting on a substantial amount of positive equity,  even in a softer market. The opportunity hasn't gone anywhere. What's gone up is the cost of getting the process wrong. If anything, complexity in the market makes speed and certainty more appealing. It’s a buyers market for those who are smart enough to take hold of it which is exactly what Bridgit was built for. Buying first and being able to sell later. 

‍

The bottom line

ASIC's review is a reminder that speed and transparency aren't nice-to-haves, they're an absolute minimum requirement - a ticket to the game. A customer who can see exactly where their money is, in real time, should not wait five years to find out something went wrong.

‍

At Bridgit, this is the standard we hold ourselves to every day. Certainty is the whole product. Homeowners navigating the buy-sell gap don't need more complexity added to an already complex moment. They need a lender that can see the full picture, catch problems before they compound, and give them a straight answer to get them into their new home faster. 

‍

That's not a compliance exercise. That's the job and the industry needs to do better to protect consumers. 

‍