Westpac and the Australian Banking Association (ABA) have announced the release of an industry-first Safety by Design toolkit designed to support banks in mitigating financial abuse.

The toolkit, which has been made available to sector peers, provides guidance for banks to ensure their products and services are developed with safeguards against financial abuse as well as capabilities to identify perpetrators of financial abuse.

According to Westpac, adoptees of the toolkit will be able to better “anticipate, detect, and eliminate online risks”, and build safer and more inclusive digital environments.

“The toolkit is an amalgamation of resources we’ve rolled out at Westpac over the past 18 months to build capability and confidence in adopting Safety by Design principles into product and service design,” said Westpac head of vulnerability, strategy and governance Tiffany Lewin.

Among these resources include alerts to identify potential power of attorney abuse, introduced by Westpac earlier this year.

Lewin underscored the value and importance of sharing this capability across industry.

“While it is good for us to build capability within our own organisation, it is even better if we move as an industry. We hope the resources developed by Westpac will be used across our peer organisations to support all customers – no matter who they bank with.”

ABA chief executive Anna Bligh welcomed the release of the toolkit, noting that “Safety by Design principles allow bankers to put user safety and rights at the centre of the design of banking products”.

“This means it will be harder for perpetrators to exploit banking products and services to control and financially abuse people.”

eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant further praised the Safety by Design toolkit as a “crucial step towards enabling banks to better protect their customers from these harms”.

“By embedding user safety into the core design of banking products, we can prevent perpetrators from exploiting financial systems to control or abuse others.”

These principles, she added, also enable banks to “create an environment that not only safeguards users, but also actively supports customers’ right to have safe access to their accounts and make informed financial decisions without fear of technology-facilitated abuse or financial exploitation”.