Australia’s Volt Bank announces it is shutting down

By Leandra Monteiro

Volt Bank has made the difficult decision to close its deposit-taking business and has commenced the process of returning all deposits to its account holders.

All customers have been advised to stop using their accounts immediately. Customers have been instructed to transfer the balances held in all Volt accounts to a nominated bank account with another financial institution before the 5th of July 2022. If their account is a Term Deposit, there will be no break costs in relation to the early closure of the account.

The interest rate on all accounts has been set to zero. All interest has been accrued to customers account up to the 29th of June 2022 when the interest rate was changed to zero. This interest will be paid to their Volt accounts on the 29th of June 2022 except for the Save and Spend accounts which will be paid on the 1st of July 2022.

Volt has started closing accounts from the 5th of July 2022 so customers were instructed to withdrawn all their funds and leave a balance of $0 in all accounts before then.

Volt ensured its customers it is doing everything possible to return the deposits in an orderly and timely manner. The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) is closely monitoring this process. In addition to this, deposits are protected under the Australian Government Financial Claims Scheme which guarantees deposits up to $250,000 per account holder.