Back to: Code of Banking Practice

 

What is guarantor disclosure?
The Australian banking industry has revised the Code of Banking Practice on how we treat our customers and their guarantors. From 1 June 2004 under the Code of Banking Practice we must provide key information about our customers to any prospective guarantor. This helps to ensure that as a guarantor you have the financial information you need to know about the borrower (our customer) and their loan (the Facility). It also means you understand your obligations as guarantor before you make that commitment.¹

You can also download a copy of our guarantor disclosure (PDF 54kb).

Information we provide to guarantors
If you are a guarantor the following information about our customer (the borrower) will be supplied to you before you sign the guarantee:

• Details of any notice of demand we have made on the customer within the past 12 months.²

• Details of any dishonour on any facility the customer has (or has had) with us, which has occurred within the past 12 months.²

• Details of any excess / overdrawing of $100.00 or more on any facility the customer has (or has had) with us which has occurred within the past 6 months. ³

• Copy of the related credit contract (including the final letter of offer provided to the customer with details of any conditions in an earlier version of that letter of offer that are satisfied before the final letter is issued) together with a list of any related security contracts. We will give you a copy of any related security contract that you request.
• Copy of any current credit-related insurance contract we hold.

• Copy of any statement of position or financial accounts given to us by the customer for the purpose of the facility to be guaranteed (the Facility) within the two years prior to the day we provide you with this information.

• Copies of the latest statement of account relating to the Facility, but only if the Facility is already with us, and any other statement of account for a period during which a notice of demand was made by us, or a dishonour occurred, in relation to which we are required to give you information.

• Copy of any unsatisfied notice of demand made by us on the customer that relates to the Facility where the notice was given within 2 years prior to the day we are required to provide you with this information.

• Any other information we may have about the Facility that you request as guarantor.

Notes
1.We do not automatically apply every provision of the Code to certain customers and guarantors dealing with our equipment finance business, for reasons relating to the speed with which they prefer to effect those transactions. Those customers can, however, elect to receive either the full disclosure benefits of the Code or the benefit of best practice, non-Code based disclosure.
2. From 1 June 2005, the information we provide will include the preceding two years.
3. Where the borrower's accounts include a Credit Card account it is possible that information relating to events prior to 16 February 2004 may not be complete as we are only able to search these accounts for a shorter period than is required.

Things you need to know
We aim to minimise bank errors, however, it is possible the information in the disclosure statement provided to you may include some items that have arisen due to a processing error on our part. This could mean the disclosure statement shows a dishonour item or an excess/overdrawing that did not occur. This may also occur where we have authorised our customer (the borrower) to overdraw their account or exceed their limit but have not put in place a formal limit.