Banking inquiry: eight things we learned from the chief executives
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Version 0 of 1. The Turnbull government’s three-day bank hearings finished on Thursday afternoon. What did we learn? 1. The bank bosses generally held the power, with committee members struggling to ask decent follow-up questions. Every chief executive apologised for the way their banks had treated customers in recent years. They all said they were determined to regain the community’s trust. Westpac’s chief executive, Brian Hartzer, conceded a “trust gap” had opened up between Australia’s banks and their customers. 2. Political donations have become a bigger issue, because NAB recently quietly decided to stop making direct donations to political parties. ANZ says its board is now considering the issue. 3. None of the banks want a royal commission. They all support the idea of setting up a “one-stop shop” banking tribunal to regulate the banks and help disaffected customers. This is the idea favoured by the Turnbull government. 4. Every bank has been involved in a some kind of financial scandal in recent years. NAB and ANZ admitted this week that they still hadn’t told some customers that financial planners had been sacked for poor conduct. 5. No CBA employee has been fired for rejecting insurance claims from terminally ill people or refusal to pay out on life insurance at Commonwealth Bank’s insurance arm, CommInsure. 6. Hartzer, admitted he had discussed the idea of a banking tribunal in April or May this year with the treasurer, Scott Morrison. Labor is upset by this revelation and will likely pursue it. 7. Labor and the Greens are unhappy with the banking hearing process and will continue their calls for a royal commission 8. Malcolm Turnbull has dismissed suggestions that the bank hearings were set up in response to political pressure for a royal commission. He says the committee can summon the bank bosses to as many hearings as it wants. |