Why Kenneth Hayne won’t extend banking royal commission

Ken Hayne has already put a bomb under banks, so why would he want to spend more time hearing complaints about ripoffs?

Kenneth Hayne has better things to do than spend the rest of his life listening to banking horror stories. Pic: David Geraghty

Banking royal commissioner Ken Hayne is not stupid, which explains why he has made it known he plans to stick to his February deadline for a final report, even while politicians scream for more.

Canberra doesn’t get it.

Why would Hayne want to spend the rest of his life hearing consumers complain about how the banks have ripped them off?

It might make good copy for the media and is certainly good politics for the ALP but there must be over 20 million Australians with a bad banking story.

Hayne is 73 years old, has had a brilliant legal career and has better plans than that.

He has already thrown a bomb under the industry, so his work is well under way.

The unknown of course is whether he will recommend criminal prosecutions against the financial service company bosses and lay down plans to revolutionise the regulatory framework.

Band of Queensland’s John Sutton today revealed his compliance bill has increased by $9 million, which he took below the line.

This means his cash profit of $372 million was closer to $352 million after compliance and software charges were added in.

As was expected from the industry BoQ reported a fall in return on equity to a politically acceptable 9.9 per cent after revenues rose by two per cent and expenses by one per cent.

Sutton’s specialist business banking unit is continuing to outperform, contributing 60 per cent to cash earnings.

Overall executive pay came in at 0.7 per cent of bank profits, which was down from 1.3 per cent five years ago.

Sutton’s short-term bonus was down $250,000 and came in at 49 per cent of the potential maximum, while long term bonuses came in at 62 per cent.

His cash pay of $2.8 million was roughly in line with year ago returns.

During the year Sutton sold 120,000 bank shares worth around $1.3 million but still has $1.9 million worth left.