Commonwealth Bank has paid A$180,000 in infringement notices for breaching responsible lending rules when selling personal overdraft facilities. The bank found a programming error in the automated serviceability calculator used to assess applications for overdrafts and, as a result, failed to take living expenses into account in a number of cases. The bank approved almost 10,000 customers for overdrafts that would otherwise have been declined and 1152 customers for higher overdraft limits than it would have otherwise approved. In addition to paying a fine the bank will write off $2.5 million of loan balances. Australians remain fairly risk-averse with 29.9 per cent saying bank deposits are the best place to put savings, according to the latest Westpac Melbourne Institute Index of Consumer Sentiment. The preference for bank deposits was up slightly from 29.5 per cent in June. The proportions favouring real estate (15.4 per cent) and shares (8.6 per cent) were steady. Overall consumer sentiment rose in the latest survey by 0.3 per cent and has been relatively stable for about six months.