Banks brace for hammering over their ‘woeful’ behaviour

Banks are bracing for the biggest overhaul of their operations in generations with the release of the royal commission report today.

Commissioner Kenneth Hayne and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg with the final report from the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry, at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: Kym Smith

Australia’s banks are bracing for the biggest overhaul of their operations in generations, with royal commissioner Kenneth Hayne’s report into financial industry misconduct expected today to ­propose civil and criminal prosecutions for rogue companies and executives and tougher watchdog oversight.

Leading corporate titans have called for an overhaul of conflicted remuneration, clearer and more enforceable laws, and a commitment to take responsibility for misconduct.

“Agencies like ASIC will have to enforce the law, and the industry will have to adapt to compliance on a genuine basis — not compliance for the sake of it,” AMP chairman David Murray told The Australian ahead of the royal commission report being released at 4.10pm.

“If it’s a good report, it will be clear to everyone what they have to do.”

Former Bendigo Bank chief executive Mike Hirst yesterday demanded a thorough overhaul of banker remuneration to end incentives for sales staff to shunt customers into the wrong products, describing the commission’s revelations as “beyond any reasonable person’s expectations”. “I didn’t think there was going to be much to find that hadn’t ­already been prosecuted in one way or another, but there has been, and it’s been beyond disappointing,” Mr Hirst said.

The report, paired with ­Productivity Commission reviews of competition in the financial ­system and its examination of the $2.7 trillion superannuation sector will also provide a road map for a political battle between Labor and the Coalition before the likely May federal election.

Outgoing Nationals senator John Williams — the politician who fought for almost a decade to hold a banking royal commission — has put the Morrison government on notice that he wants to strengthen corporate-penalties legislation, criminalise super­annuation misconduct and break up the major banks to ensure cultural change sweeping the sector is not a temporary fix.

Senator Williams saidit was time for the banks to “show they can do the right thing” after decades of misconduct.

While the landmark document is likely to reshape the industry in customers’ favour, the Coalition government will be under pressure to ensure its response is tough enough to satisfy Senator Williams and his Nationals colleague Barry O’Sullivan, who could cross the floor to support a Labor push to toughen legislation aimed at ­increasing corporate penalties.

The government has proposed a $210 million cap for corporate civil offences in legislation currently before the Senate aimed at sharpening corporate penalties. However, Labor is pushing to dump the cap for a maximum fine of 10 per cent of revenue, which would see Commonwealth Bank liable for a fine of more than $4 billion. Senator Williams said he was in favour of uncapping penalties. “I don’t think it should be maxed out,” he said.

Scott Morrison has flagged an in-principle intention to adopt all the recommendations, after opposition Treasury spokesman Chris Bowen pledged to legislate all of Mr Hayne’s proposals.

Mr Hirst, who spent nine years in the top job at the nation’s fifth-largest bank, said the inquiry would hopefully shore up culture across the financial industry.

“The fact it was an inquiry into misconduct has made everything that has come out much starker than it otherwise would’ve been. Having said that, some of the stuff that did come out was just woeful. Misleading regulators is just unbelievable on any plain at all. It’s incredible that significant companies could think that was OK to do.

“There has been enough there to say: clearly the royal commission was warranted. Hopefully the shock of all that is enough to change the culture,” Mr Hirst said.

Senator Williams became a key force to establish the year-long commission after first setting up a 2009 parliamentary inquiry into the collapse of Storm Financial and Opes Prime during the global financial crisis.

In 2011, he first called for a royal commission into white-collar crime in a speech that shot across the bow of the Australian Securities & Investments Commission for its failure to protect consumers. Although the government ignored his request, Senator Williams continued to push for a royal commission, which eventuated when he forced Malcolm Turnbull’s hand after winning enough support for his private member’s bill for a commission of inquiry.

“I’d like to see the commission recommend vertical integration be abolished,” Senator Williams said. “I’d like to see financial planners totally independent from companies with wealth management and life insurance products.”

Senator Williams is also hopeful ASIC will be a “tougher cop on the beat”. ASIC was hammered by the royal commission for its flaccid approach to taking companies to court, which the regulator blamed on a lack of funding to compete with armies of lawyers employed by the banks.

The senator believes the industry is improving itself because of the power of the revelations.

“Even without Kenneth Hayne reporting, the royal commission has already had a positive effect on the industry,” Senator Williams said.

“The boards of directors, the CEOs and the CFOs, they’re all on notice, they’ve all got the message — there’ll be billions in compensation, and there will be a change of attitude.

“But cultural change has got to be locked in. The royal commission has done its job to a certain extent. It’s highlighted the wrongdoing. Now the banks have to show that they can do the right thing.”