Jeff Morris named a Member of the Order of Australia for exposing CBA’s poor practices

Jeff Morris exposed the Commonwealth Bank’s poor practices in its financial planning division and ASIC’s failure to act. And he would do it all again if he had to.

Jeff Morris is advocating for reforms to the nation’s whistleblower protections. Picture: Flavio Brancaleone

If bank whistleblower Jeff Morris had his time again he would still take on the might of Commonwealth Bank and the practices in its financial planning operations.

Mr Morris’s efforts to shed light on poor compliance and practices in the sector helped ­trigger the landmark financial services royal commission, and contributed to him being named as a Member of the Order of ­Australia on Thursday.

“It was never a choice … a lot of people would have suffered if I hadn’t taken the stance that I had,” Mr Morris said. “I saw people who were basically helpless, who had no chance if somebody didn’t stand up for them.

“I knew there would be a massive personal price to be paid and indeed that bore out … you do it because it’s the right thing to do.”

Mr Morris blew the whistle on widespread poor practices within his employer CBA’s financial planning division, including the actions of a rogue adviser who was later banned from the industry for seven years by the corporate regulator.

Mr Morris also blew the whistle on the Australian Securities and Investments Commission in 2013, after the regulator didn’t act on information provided to it by other whistleblowers. That prompted a senate inquiry into the regulator.

The royal commission was established in late-2017, almost five years after Mr Morris had started pushing for an inquisition to look under the banking sector’s hood.

“It was a tough journey and it was a very hard fight, but I mean credit where credit is due, as I’ve always said we would never have got it were it not for the banks themselves. They were their own worst enemy,” he said. “They produced a succession of scandals and all we had to do is keep hammering the message home.

“I realised that the whole industry was rotten … The common element was the regulator. In my early dealings with ASIC they were just absolutely useless. They just didn’t respond, so it’s no mystery why the whole industry was out of control, because the regulator was asleep at the wheel.”

As well as CBA, Morris’s 30-plus years in financial services spanned other companies, including NatWest Bank, Deloitte & Touche, and Bankers Trust. Due to his revelations, CBA’s planning unit accepted an enforceable undertaking  to repay customers for advice that was either dodgy or not provided.

Mr Morris laments, though, that more corporate scalps and penalties didn’t eventuate as a consequence of the royal commission and supports individual and company financial penalties that are now being debated as part of an accountability regime.

“The bloodletting should have been much greater, there were whole layers of managers, and I believe there should have been criminal charges,” he said.

Mr Morris believes the Financial Accountability Regime and other measures would benefit from specific penalties and offences for employees and managers that deliberately act to the detriment of customers. He said, though, the banking sector had improved its compliance practices somewhat after the “wake-up call” of the royal commission.

Mr Morris also spent time as deputy mayor and as a councillor of North Sydney Council between 2012 and 2017, where he pushed to reverse the sale of government land, now Anzac Park Public School.

Mr Morris is advocating for reforms to whistleblower protections to assist those navigating the power imbalance, personal cost.