The Commonwealth Bank's Dollarmites program is part of a review of in-school banking programs by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

The Commonwealth Bank's Dollarmites program is part of a review of in-school banking programs by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.Credit:Commonwealth Bank

In May last year,theSydney Morning Herald andThe Age revealed thatCommonwealth Bank staff had fraudulently activated hundreds of children's accounts to meet performance targets.

Under the Dollarmites program,children receive a silver Dollarmites token in return for making a deposit into their Youthsaver account. Once the child collects 10 tokens,they can be exchanged for a toy or game as rewards. There are also classroom activities to teach children about money.

ASIC has consulted primary school principals,parents,present and past students and organisations from the education and consumer advocacy sectors,as well as the financial institutions offering the programs. It is now seeking comments from thepublic and from organisations with an interest in the issue.

About 3800 schools voluntarily participate in the Commonwealth Bank's school banking program,which has been running for more than 85 years. Bendigo Bank has a similar program.

Consumer group Choice has been one of the most vocal critics of the programs,which is dominated by the Commonwealth Bank.

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Choice's consumer advocate,Jonathan Brown,said the Dollarmites program was a"thinly veiled marketing program to turn our kids into customers for life".

“We’ve heard from parents across the country who are fed up with their children being targeted as future customers,” Mr Brown said.

"ASIC’s new research shows that these bank marketing programs have little evidence they work[in improving financial literacy],"he said.

A Commonwealth Bank spokesperson said the bank has a"strong and respected track record of providing quality financial education programs in Australia and is always looking at ways to improve our financial education programs".

"As we stated in October 2018[when the ASIC review was first announced],we welcome ASIC’s review into school banking programs in primary schools and have been working with the regulator to provide information on our financial education programs,"the spokesperson said.

ASIC's review is expected to be completed in early 2020.

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