‘A day of shame’: banking royal commission interim report delivered – as it happened

The Commonwealth Bank has promised to provide a “comprehensive response” to the “confronting” interim report.

Chief executive Matt Comyn released a statement saying: “The royal commission’s interim report released today is confronting and rightly critical of our industry and our bank. We have seen too many examples of unacceptable behaviour and unacceptable customer outcomes.

“The commission has highlighted the need for significant changes, particularly to systems, processes and culture. I am committed to making sure that we learn from the failures detailed in this report to fix what went wrong and put things right for our customers.

“We have already made a number of changes and will make more to meet the community’s expectations and earn trust.

“The vast majority of our people do the right thing by their customers every day. They have also been let down.”

The chief executive of NAB has released a statement saying the bank had difficult truths to confront:

I have had the opportunity to read the summary of the royal commission interim report and will review the report in more detail over the weekend. I would like to thank the commissioner for his thoroughness and diligence.

For us at NAB, where we have made mistakes or done the wrong thing, we will own them and fix them.

It is difficult to face the statement of ‘profits before people’, but this is exactly what we need to confront. Banking was built on putting people first and earning the trust of customers. We must return to these principles once again, rather than continuing to be short term managers.

So what do we know from the report so far?

• That a culture emerged which placed “greed” above customers, and that was the “driver” for much of the misconduct we have seen;
• That the regulators, Asic and Apra, were too close to the sector they were meant to be policing and rarely took full advantage of their powers;
• The banks accept they have much to do to win back trust;
• Further legislation is on the cards;
• Labor has promised to establish a task force to enforce the commission’s final findings.

There is more to come – again, the final report is not due until February, and who knows what the political situation will look like then.

There are also more hearings to be held in November, when the sector’s policies are going to be under the microscope.

Labor will continue to use the Coalition’s reluctance to hold the commission against it, while pushing for it to be extended, while the government is going to promote the changes it has already made, as well as embracing what the commission tells it.

In short, it is going to be a rough few months for the banking industry, and this is only the beginning.

We will have a review of the full 1,000-page report for you very soon, and make sure you keep checking in daily for updates as the story rolls on.

Labor has also sent out its official response:

Today, Scott Morrison owes the nation an apology for standing in the way of the banking royal commission.

Twenty-six times he voted against it.

For 600 days the Liberals failed to act – at the same time as they were fighting to give the banks a $17 billion tax handout.

The release today of the Interim Report of the Royal Commission into Misconduct in Financial Services has highlighted shocking misconduct across the sector – and how disturbing it is that Morrison fought to protect the banks for so long.

The interim report asked the question about why the banking scandals happened and provided this stark and concerning response:

“Too often, the answer seems to be greed – the pursuit of short term profit at the expense of basic standards of honesty.”

And in a major criticism of the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government and a lack of financial regulator action:

“When misconduct was revealed, it either went unpunished or the consequences did not meet the seriousness of what had been done.”

Labor will now study the royal commission’s interim report and findings closely.

The Liberals have never taken this seriously – they were dragged kicking and screaming on this royal commission and gave it an unreasonably short timeframe. They can’t be trusted to properly act on these findings.

Today Labor is announcing we will crack down on the sickening rorts and rip offs that have been exposed through the royal commission.

If elected, a Shorten Labor government will establish a Financial Services Royal Commission Implementation Taskforce, to reform the culture of profit over people in the financial services sector.

The taskforce will be located within the Treasury and work closely with the Attorney General’s Department, and will oversee implementation of the reforms recommended by the royal commission to ensure that they are delivered swiftly and effectively.

The taskforce will consult with victims and victim groups – in recognition that they are the lived experience of the systemic misconduct in the banking sector.

Under a Shorten Labor government, Chris Bowen as treasurer will report to the parliament every six months on progress in implementation, until the recommendations are fully implemented.

The Liberals did everything they could possibly do to keep this misconduct hidden. For 600 days, they blocked a royal commission. The prime minister Scott Morrison voted against a royal commission 26 times, calling it a “reckless distraction” and a “QC’s complaints desk”.

Nobody can trust the Liberals to clean up this appalling misconduct. They always have been, and always will be, on the side of the big banks.

Labor will fight for ordinary Australians, and we are absolutely committed to cracking down on corporate crooks and misconduct in our financial services sector.

Labor called for this royal commission, Labor fought for this royal commission, Labor will establish a Financial Services Royal Commission Implementation Taskforce, and Labor will work day and night to protect Australian businesses and consumers from this appalling misconduct.

[“Source-theguardian”]