AMP chairman Catherine Brenner quits amid fallout from banking royal commission
IT’S no shock that the AMP chairman has resigned — taking the fall for the disastrous revelations at the bank royal commission — but there is an intriguing line in today’s announcement, says Terry McCrann.
Terry McCrann
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THE AMP chairman has resigned — taking responsibility for the disastrous revelations at the bank royal commission — while proclaiming her innocence.
I’m not making a judgment call by stating that; I’m just explaining precisely what has happened, what she’s done and what she — and indeed the rest of the board — have claimed.
The key sentence in the statement from the board today was: “the board is satisfied that the former chairman Catherine Brenner, former chief executive officer Craig Meller and the other directors did not act inappropriately in relation to the preparation of the Clayton Utz report.”
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Now, read simply, that might seem the equivalent of an accused criminal saying that he or she was satisfied that they had done nothing wrong. But that would be incorrect and unfair.
The board didn’t just come to that conclusion on its own: it had three lawyers — and this time, I think we can assume they really were ‘independent’ — assess what happened over the critical, controversial, so-called ‘independent report’ by legal firm Clayton Utz on the AMPs ‘fee for no service scandal (the board used the word “issue”).’
The other critical point in the statement was that they dumped the entire ‘issue’ in the lap of the — now former — AMP group counsel Brian Salter who has been booted immediately and will lose any deferred pay.
Further, although this wasn’t directly stated, they are effectively also blaming the corporate cop ASIC.
No I would make two other broad upfront points.
Just because the AMP has effectively said “it isn’t so”, that does not mean it should or will be accepted as a statement of fact. There will still be — still have to be — further inquiries into what happened.
What was said and the chairman’s departure doesn’t get anyone off the hook.
As I wrote at the start of this, when the revelations first surfaced, the — now former — chairman Catherine Brenner, the other directors, and the top management of the AMP “have just stepped into a world of pain.”
If they have any doubt over what lies ahead they should just have a chat to what their counterparts up the hill from Circular Quay in Sydney at the Commonwealth Bank have been experiencing since the money laundering scandal broke. And then multiply that by ten.
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It is now blindingly clear that the RC is going to lead to sweeping changes in regulation and enforcement over banks and the whole financial system.
It is also clearly going to have a direct impact on the way every single financial institution operates. There will be sweeping changes to boards of directors and managements.
The great danger is that we end up throwing the baby out with the — dirty — bathwater. A trustworthy efficient financial system — and financial institutions — are the foundation of your financial wellbeing.
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