Industry reactions to banking RC report

Greed has driven misconduct in the financial sector, the banking royal commissioner says in an interim report that also slams industry regulators.

INDUSTRY REACTIONS TO THE INTERIM REPORT

BANKING ROYAL COMMISSIONER KENNETH HAYNE QC

"Too often, the answer seems to be greed - the pursuit of short-term profit at the expense of basic standards of honesty."

TREASURER JOSH FRYDENBERG

"Australians expect and deserve better."

BANKING ASSOCIATION - "Make no mistake, today is a day of shame for Australia's banks." CEO Anna Bligh

ASIC: "ASIC notes the report's serious and important observations of ASIC's role as a regulator." chair James Shipton

FINANCIAL SERVICES COUNCIL: "In a compulsory system, everyone has a right to be treated with fairness, honesty and utmost professionalism. The industry takes responsibility for the culture that led to some deplorable outcomes for many consumers and a transformation is long overdue."

FINANCIAL RIGHTS LEGAL CENTRE: "Our financial service providers need to stop lending people more money than they can afford to repay. They need to assist people to set realistic goals, not set them up to fail and profit from their misery." - co-ordinator Karen Cox

COMMONWEALTH BANK AUSTRALIA: "The commission has highlighted the need for significant changes, particularly to systems, processes and culture. I am committed to making sure that we learn from the failures detailed in this report to fix what went wrong and put things right for our customers." - chief executive Matt Comyn

NATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK: "It is difficult to face the statement of 'profits before people' but this is exactly what we need to confront ... we must return to these principles once again rather than continuing to be short-term managers." - chief executive Andrew Thorburn

ANZ BANK: "This is a critical moment for the industry, our bank and our people to continue the urgent work required to fix the significant failures highlighted by the commission. We accept responsibility and we are determined to improve." - chief executive Shayne Elliott

WESTPAC: "(We) are focused on learning from the mistakes of the past and preventing them from happening again. I apologise to any customers who have been impacted by mistakes that we have made." - CEO Brian Hartzer

AMP: "AMP is focused on ensuring that adherence to the law, meeting community expectations and the best interests of our customers are fundamental to our culture and governance. We are also committed to ensuring that our ongoing engagement with ASIC and other regulators is forthright and honest." - acting CEO Mike Wilkins.


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Source: AAP



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