The chairman of the corporate watchdog has criticised financial firms who have blamed scandals on misbehaving individuals and ignored the impact of their company structure.
Australian Securities and Investments Commission chairman Greg Medcraft on Monday said some firms do not fully recognise how remuneration policies and company culture can affect staff behaviour.
Mr Medcraft said companies had to act from the top down to set the tone for all employees.
"Time and time again, we have seen firms blaming it on a few bad apples driving bad outcomes for consumers, rather than taking responsibility by looking more closely at their organisation and implementing the necessary changes to address the root cause of the problem," Mr Medcraft told the ASIC Annual Forum in Sydney.
Financial industry misconduct has been in ASIC's crosshairs for some time, with the regulator starting Federal Court proceedings against ANZ in February over alleged interest rate rigging.
A financial advice scandal has snared Commonwealth Bank, Macquarie and National Australia Bank, while ASIC is looking at CBA's CommInsure over alleged unethical behaviour uncovered by a joint ABC-Fairfax Media investigation.
ASIC on Monday released a report in which it said there could be conflicts of interest within firms operating in more than one business area - such as funds management, responsible entity, superannuation trustee, platform structure, investment administration and custody business.
Its review did not cover all financial services and did not look at insurance or financial advice.
ASIC praised some companies but said the conflicts policy of others existed only to satisfy regulatory requirements rather than to identify and resolve problems.
"Some organisations adopt a generic template conflicts policy, with no demonstrated commitment to the conflicts management in the organisation," ASIC commissioner Greg Tanzer said.
"We saw some very real examples where the conflict in question was so fundamental that complete avoidance was necessary."
Mr Tanzer said failure to identify and manage conflicts of interest could lead to breaches of the Corporations Act and fiduciary duties.
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