The chair of the House of Representatives economics committee has taken aim at three of the four big banks for their opposition to additional oversight by the competition watchdog.
Liberal MP David Coleman said comments by the chief executives of Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank and Westpac were regrettable given how many times they had shortchanged customers.
The three CEOs in March told the economics committee they did not want to be supervised by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
ANZ's Shayne Elliott was the only CEO to accept there could be an oversight role for the ACCC.
"ANZ has demonstrated a fairly constructive approach to that process and it does appear to acknowledge the need for meaningful reform of the sector," Mr Coleman told a Thomson Reuters event in Sydney on Tuesday.
"The other banks generally oppose our committee's key recommendations, which is regrettable."
The trio's objections were ultimately in vain, with the federal government having given the ACCC access to confidential bank emails, internal reports and other documents, and also the power to hold compulsory hearings under oath, to monitor whether the banks unfairly pass the cost of the new bank levy to customers.
Mr Coleman also said all four major banks had failed to hold senior employees accountable for poor conduct, which includes the provision of bad financial advice at NAB and the mishandling of life insurance claims at Commonwealth Bank.
"For all of the many examples of bad conduct by banks toward their customers, the banks were unable to identify any senior executive who had been terminated as a result of that treatment," Mr Coleman said.
"It does suggest a meaningful cultural problem in those organisations."
Mr Coleman has chaired two rounds of parliamentary hearings with the four big bank chief executives, and said it was not enough for the banking system to be stable.
He said it had to work effectively for consumers.
"The response of the banks in our committee process was to blame middle managers or rogue employees, which given the numbers of people involved suggests there was a lot of rogues," he said.
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