Australian bank simplifies loan contracts for business customers
An Australian bank has overhauled the loan contracts it uses with its small business customers, simplifying contractual clauses, introducing plain English, reducing the length of the documents and discarding unnecessary terms and conditions.
In a move that it claimed would make banking simpler and fairer, NAB said that more than 130,000 Australian business owners would benefit from the change.
“It’s a complete transformation – what we have now is a transparent, user friendly document that is easy to read and much shorter in length. Sentences are in plain English, without unnecessary complexity,” said NAB Executive General Manager Business Direct and Small Business Leigh O’Neill.
“We consulted widely with industry and customers. Essentially, if the language didn’t make sense to them, we worked through a better solution together.”
NAB Chief Legal & Commercial Counsel Sharon Cook said: “The importance of a simple and fair contract cannot be underestimated. We’ve been simplifying across all areas of the bank and these changes are industry-leading.”
