Can we open a joint bank account?

Jasmine Shillington Updated by Jasmine Shillington

Yes, a joint account can be opened by two or more persons. All parties who wish to open a joint account must complete a Joint Account Application form. All account holders must provide their tax file number to prevent Withholding Tax from being debited from the joint account.

The important legal consequences of holding a joint account are:

  • the right of survivorship – when one joint holder dies, the surviving joint holders automatically take the deceased joint holder’s interest in the account (for business accounts different rules may apply – refer to the Note below).
  • joint and several liability – if the account is overdrawn, each joint holder is individually liable for the full amount owing.

You can operate a joint account on an ‘all to sign’ or ‘either/or to sign’ basis:

  • ‘all to sign’ means all joint holders must approve withdrawals and account changes.
  • ‘either/or to sign’ means any one joint holder can operate the account including making withdrawals and changes to the account.

All joint accounts will initially be set up as an ‘either/or to sign’ basis. However, at any time any one joint account holder can instruct us to:

  • cancel or suspend this arrangement, making it ‘all to sign’, or
  • suspend the account to allow the joint account holders time to reach agreement about disbursal of the account funds.

All joint account holders must consent to convert the operation of a joint account from ‘all to sign’ to ‘either/ or to sign or for the account to be closed. We may also make a joint account ‘all to sign’ if we become aware of a dispute between account holders.

For joint accounts, each account owner has the Consumer Data Right to share account data with accredited recipients provided all account owners are eligible to share data for the account. Any joint account holder may withdraw their consent for data sharing on an account at any time.

Note: The right of survivorship does not automatically apply to joint business accounts, such as partnerships. A partner’s interest in a business joint account would normally pass to beneficiaries nominated in the partner’s will or next-of-kin if there is no will. If you are operating a business partnership joint account, you should obtain your own legal advice to ensure your wishes are carried out. Joint Accounts are not available to company or corporate trustee applicants

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