CBA’s Matt Comyn loses his right-hand man, the meticulous David Cohen
Over 15 years at the bank, David Cohen has seen it all. On his retirement, he provides a potted history of the bank’s numerous troubles and its transformation.
It was a baptism by fire, and the flames never subsided.
When David Cohen was recruited by the Commonwealth Bank’s then chief executive Ralph Norris in 2008, his first job was to buy Bankwest. It wasn’t an easy deal: the global financial crisis was raging, due diligence was compressed to just days, and a capital raising was badly botched.
James EyersSenior ReporterJames Eyers writes on banking, finance, payments, regulation and emerging technologies. Based in Sydney, he is a former legal and investment banking editor at the AFR and has been a business journalist for more than 20 years. Email James at jeyers@afr.com.au
