Banking royal commission: Financial industry’s ‘confessions’ aired in data dump

The mea culpas of the nation’s biggest banks and insurers have been made public as part of a royal commission data dump.

The opening of the fifth round of the Royal Commission into misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry. David Geraghty/The Australian

Commonwealth Bank of Australia identified 17 major instances of misconduct and breaches of community standards among admissions from across the financial services industry when it was demanded by the royal commission ahead of this year’s hearings.

The bank detailed its wrong doings and shortcomings from Storm Financial through to financial advice, foreign exchange trading and anti-money laundering terrorism financing in a 70-page document released by the commission Wednesday ahead of this months final round of hearings.

CBA’s confession is just one of dozens released on Wednesday in a document dump that includes 96 companies, among them the big four banks, insurers such as QBE and Swiss Re, wealth management firms such as AMP and IOOF, superannuation funds including the Telstra staff fund, UniSuper, credit unions, professional associations, stockbrokers such as Bell Potter, and even security and cash handling company Chubb.

The admissions were mostly delivered by a January 29 deadline and helped guide six rounds of hearings that have sent shockwaves through the financial services industry, regulators and the wider community.

More to come