Labor leader, Bill Shorten, has layed-out his vision for a Royal Commission into Australia’s banking system. From The AFR:
“I think the first step to reforming banking is a royal commission, which would include an examination of the payment structures to the most senior executives which sees them rewarded for putting banks’ profits ahead of community interest.
“We want to see how widespread the scandals are in the banking sector. We want to understand what it is about the culture and business standards of banking which seems to trigger scandal after scandal after scandal. We want to see how well resourced the regulator is for dealing with these issues.”
Sounds like a good outline for a terms-of-reference. I would also add clearing-up the conflict between APRA and the RBA, which is leading to buck passing and regulatory failure (see here and here).
In the meantime, the scandals keep piling-up. In addition to the banks’ manipulation of the bank bill swap rate, and the many examples of loan fraud (see here, here, here, here and here), Michael West has uncovered that NAB has been charging an elderly blind farmer an extortionate 28% interest rate on his mortgage.
Royal Commission now!
