Westpac accounts were repeatedly used by Australian customers to purchase (and thus make a market for) child pornography (and worse, unimaginably) in Asia. Allegedly, the bank even learned one customer was a convicted child sex offender and still didn’t stop or promptly report his 10 subsequent transfers to the Philippines.

All of this occurred right under the noses of Westpac’s chief executive and non-executive directors. And not a single one of them is willing to resign – not Lindsay Maxsted, not Brian Hartzer, not Ewen Crouch. Their obdurate precedence is self-preservation. They’re very sorry, mind you, and they'll withhold Brian's bonus (it took them four days to do even that much), but really must insist on staying put, hoarding their own fat fees and associated trappings. It’s perfectly disgusting.