Financial Sector Union gets access to banking royal commission lockup

The Financial Sector Union had been knocked back in an eleventh-hour misunderstanding between the union and Treasury.

The Financial Sector Union representing frontline workers in bank branches and superannuation companies has been granted admission to the royal commission lock-up after being knocked back in an eleventh-hour misunderstanding between the union and Treasury.

The Australian Bankers Association, representing the interests of the major lenders, the Financial Services Council, the lobby groups for the wealth management industry, and the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees will all been given access to Commissioner Kenneth Hayne’s final report hours before it is publicly released on Monday.

While the nation’s major media organisations have also been granted access to a federal budget-style lock-up to read the documents before they are published on Monday afternoon, the union group representing bank workers claimed it had been knocked back from attending.

After the FSU’ s lawyers applied to attend Treasury had written back saying it was not going to be allowed in the lock-up. After appealing the decision, when Treasury believed the lawyers representing the FSU wanted to access the lock-up, unrelated to the FSU, the union was granted access.

The FSU was given leave to appear at every round of the royal commission and made submissions following each fortnight of hearings in order to explain how frontline staff were being pressured to shunt customers into loans and products due to the use of extreme KPIs.

The FSU proposed overhauling conflicted remuneration, ensuring customer interests were given precedent above banks’ own economic interests and forcing regulators to be more confident and assertive.

The Labor Party, the ACTU and consumer advocacy group Choice have also been given access to Treasury lock-up on Monday.