Share price movements can be a pretty crude measure of the success of a chairman’s tenure. But in the case of Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s Catherine Livingstone, who announced her retirement on Wednesday after more than five years in the role, it neatly illustrates the bank’s extraordinary rise and fall.

Despite one of the tumultuous periods in the CBA’s history – the evisceration of its culture by the prudential regulator, a historic penalty for anti-money laundering transgressions, a searing royal commission that captivated the nation for months, and the once-in-a-century pandemic – the bank’s shares sit almost 30 per cent higher than when Livingstone assumed the role on January 1, 2017.