Commonwealth Bank chief executive Ian Narev had not presided over a fall in profit until he delivered his final set of numbers.
After six years running CBA, Mr Narev signed off on a first-half result hit hard by the cost of the bank's various regulatory and legal challenges - the final results he will deliver before his retirement in April.
Profit for the six months to December 31 slipped 1.9 per cent to $4.735 billion after CBA set aside $575 million in provisions related to regulatory and legal issues.
Included in that sum is $375 million for anticipated penalties arising from AUSTRAC's allegations of money-laundering and terrorism-funding law breaches.
Mr Narev acknowledged the bank only had itself to blame for the slip.
"We brought on ourselves a lot of the additional compliance activity that we've had to do by not reaching standards," Mr Narev told reporters at a briefing in Sydney.
Mr Narev said that given the opportunity, there were elements of his exit and his tenure as CEO that he would change.
"There'd be a lot of things I'd do differently and there are a lot of things about the bank where I'm happy where they are," he said.
The fallout of the AUSTRAC proceedings, which are before the Federal Court, could continue to impact both Mr Narev's successor Matt Comyn and the bank's bottom line and stakeholders might expect ongoing expenditure on regulation and compliance, Mr Narev said
"A couple of years ago we said this is a non-recurring cost and in the next half there'll also be other non-recurring costs - we said a little facetiously at the time but that's how it is panning it out at the moment," he said.
Despite the sombre tone, CBA's cash profit was still 32 per cent higher than the one Mr Narev delivered in his first half-year announcement in 2012.
During his tenure, Mr Narev presided over a succession of record annual profits but his exit was shaped by a series of scandals that damaged trust in CBA.
Allegations of customer mistreatment at CommInsure, a strike on executive pay and compensation for poor advice from financial planners were absorbed but the AUSTRAC allegations launched in August proved to be a final blow.
Mr Narev and his fellow executives lost their short-term bonuses over the issue and the CEO announced his retirement.
Mr Narev said he would front the upcoming banking royal commission if asked.
