Westpac debit card gets go-ahead despite ASIC case

8 January 2010

Westpac Handycard customers who missed out on the early 2009 debit card send out can soon expect to receive a new debit card after the major bank defeating the corporate watchdog in a federal case debating the matter.

Westpac's 900,000 Handycard debit card customers were receiving new MasterCard debit cards until May 2009, whether they wanted it or not, before Australian Securities and Investments Commission halted the issuing. The ASIC believed that the bank had breached the ASIC Act which clearly states that any individual cannot be sent unsolicited credit or debit card unless the card is a replacement for "a card of the same kind".

However the Federal Court has found in favour of Westpac and found that the bank acted within its rights and did not breach the Act when it sent out the new debit cards.

The case was a dispute as to whether or not the cards were similar enough to constitute being an updated version of the existing card or if it was actually unsolicited new material with ASIC claiming that the cards were not the same style of card as the original and therefore breached the Act.

However the ruling stated that both cards involved the customer using the card to withdraw funds from the customers own account so, therefore, they were similar enough.

"It was not the intention of the act to constrain the relationship between an issuer of a card and its customer by preventing the issuer updating the particular kind of card with the latest version of that kind of card," the judgement stated.

It is unknown whether the ruling will be appealed or not.

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