The banking products commonly used for financial abuse are credit cards, transaction accounts, personal loans and mortgages.
The Centre for Women's Economic Safety CEO explains how banks have modified products in the past to prevent perpetrators from sending abusive messages via banking products.
Ms Glenn says banks should apply these kinds of changes to ensure other products can minimise the potential for abuse.
"The bottom line is banks are inadvertently facilitating this kind of abuse, and we think they have a social obligation to do better. We want banks to start by changing their terms and conditions, making it clear that no matter what the banking product, a banking product is no place for abuse. For instance, why does a mortgage have to be a joint and severally liable thing? Meaning that a bank can come after all of their money from either party, but what most couples believe is happening is that they've gone into something jointly- fifty-fifty. So why don't we look at re-imagining a product that actually states that upfront?"
Australian Banking Association's CEO, Anna Bligh, admits there is room for improvement in how banks manage financial abuse, and insists they take this issue very seriously.
"Australian banks know only too well that perpetrators of violence often use financial abuse as a weapon against those people they are seeking to control and abuse. That's why Australian banks take this issue incredibly seriously. We welcome this report and look forward to working with the authors to work through ideas to help banks do even better than they are in this space."
