As the call for CBA Royal Commission continues to resonate, one article today sums up how badly the bank has handled its planning scandal. Business Spectator’s Stephen Bartholomeusz has rarely seen a corporate play that he did not like but today even he can’t resist putting the boot in:
CBA has mishandled the controversies that have surrounded its financial planning businesses and allowed them to escalate to the point where a Senate Committee last week called for a royal commission into them. It should have done far earlier to address them and provide real redress to its customers.
Why didn’t it? CBA’s chief executive, Ian Narev, who made an abject apology to the group’s customers while announcing the scheme today, referred to a “culture of defensiveness”…
It will fund a process under which all of the 400,000-plus customers of the Commonwealth Financial Planning and Financial Wisdom businesses between 2003 and 2012…
After the review is completed, the customers will receive an assessment and the offer of an independent customer advocate, funded by CBA, to negotiate the outcome.
If they aren’t happy with the assessment, they can seek a further review from an independent panel yet to be established…
I watched Joe Hockey speak today at a Melbourne Institute conference and when he was asked about the scandal there was plenty outrage but little sense that a Royal Commission is pending. Can the Government afford it? Look at the dates above. David Murray was CEO until 2005 and is heading the government’s generational inquiry into banking.
It’s not just a CBA governance debacle.
