Commonwealth Bank shareholders are enjoying a record share price and dividends, but have attacked the company over revelations rogue planners lost millions of dollars in retirees' investments.
Friday's annual general meeting in Adelaide was the first time directors had faced shareholders since it emerged in June that rogue financial planners lost millions of dollars by placing clients' investments in high risk products without permission.
Shareholders asked why it had taken management several years to notice that the reckless, sales driven culture was occurring in 2008.
"Wouldn't alarm bells ring?" asked one shareholder.
"It's a matter of ethics.
"If we want to give `x' number of people a really nice bonus because they brought in all this business, ethically I think that's being really greedy at the expense of customers who of course have lost money."
Chairman David Turner admitted it had taken far too long for the problems to publicly emerge, but said the board and corporate regulator had since acted decisively.
"That business was structured wrongly, remunerated wrongly and the culture was wrong and it was too slow coming up through the organisation," he told shareholders.
He insisted the issues would not reoccur - including salary packages not aligned with customers' interests, such as fees for placing cash in higher risk accounts.
"We now have one of the most comprehensive staff training programs in the industry, we have completely changed the remuneration structure and have more rigorous system processes and document management," Mr Turner said.
CBA's board was also asked se about possible wrongdoing in its 2008 BankWest acquisition.
The deal is the subject of a possible class action by aggrieved Bankwest borrowers, who say it was in CBA's commercial interest to foreclose on them to save money on the takeover.
Chief executive Ian Narev said sometimes the bank disagreed with its customers and it had a right to enforce the rights of shareholders as custodians of their money.
Meanwhile, Mr Turner said the local economy may strengthen in 2014, with recent signs that business confidence was picking up.
The company's shares dropped on Friday for the first time in a week, ending a run of new record highs.
They dropped 22 cents to $79.10.
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