Earlier this week the Australian Securities and Investments Commission filed two royal commission-recommended cases against the bank, both of which CBA has pleaded guilty to.
The same pragmatism was evident last year when the corporate cop started rolling out royal commission cases, but it is particularly apt given the focus has now turned to customer survival, amid the damage caused by the response to the coronavirus.
The first case centred on CBA packages to some 8,659 farmers. For 131,545, the bank failed to deliver on the promised benefits.
CBA has since paid the affected customers $8 million to compensate for its failures.
It has also agreed not to fight the ASIC case and will be liable to pay a fine of up to $5 million.
This is a rational response but of course flies in the face of expectations of bankers’ heads on sticks following the royal commission and commissioner Ken Hayne’s famous “why not litigate” recommendations.
The second case was a particularly egregious example of credit card increases in the face of stated evidence a customer was not in a position to handle the increase because he was a problem gambler.
In both cases it is good CBA is being held to account for its chronic failures to look after customers and to follow through on its own promises.
The hope is the industry’s culture is changing and such flagrant abuses are rare.
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