The big banks got off lightly from the financial services royal commission despite the NAB CEO and chair being offered up as "sacrifices and scapegoats", a competition expert says.
Former Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Allan Fels says there has been a powerful exposure of and condemnation of misconduct from the inquiry.
But the economist and lawyer believes the royal commission has not done as well in tackling difficult policy problems.
"I thought the banks got off lightly," Professor Fels told the Melbourne Press Club on Friday.
"I thought it didn't get deeply enough into a number of important things."
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Prof Fels argued the issue of structural separation - where institutions provide advice and make the financial products they sell - needed a much deeper look.
Royal commissioner Kenneth Hayne QC decided it was not necessary to mandate structural separation between product and advice.
Prof Fels also said Mr Hayne did not get to the bottom of questions about remuneration in the sector and did not "come up with anything much" in the area of remediation for customers.
"I was a bit disappointed with the recommendations," he said.
Prof Fels said a lot of the recommendations were aimed at "smaller fry" such as mortgage brokers and commission agents.
"The big banks got off with a few sacrifices. A chairman and a CEO have been offered up as sacrifices and scapegoats," he said.
National Australia Bank's CEO Andrew Thorburn and chairman Ken Henry resigned after Mr Hayne's final report expressed serious concerns about their leadership.
Prof Fels said a number of difficult policy problems required a lot more thought, time and consideration - including Mr Hayne's call for a move to a borrower-pays system for mortgage brokers.
