CBA all ears on failings

10,000 responses reveal hard truths

MORE than 10,000 Commonwealth Bank customers have responded to chief executive Matt Comyn’s request for feedback on how the bank does business.

Mr Comyn had written to the bank’s eight million customers after Australia’s largest lender had been embroiled in a series of scandals including the money laundering law breaches that led to a $700 million fine and the departure of his predecessor.

The bank, which like its peers has been accused at the financial services royal commission for prioritising profits over customer wellbeing, is now looking at how to address the sometimes critical responses.

“I have received more than 10,000 responses: a mixture of complaints, compliments, and general suggestions from our customers on how we can become a better bank,” Mr Comyn told yesterday’s annual general meeting in Brisbane.

“My leadership team and I are personally engaging in long-standing disputes to review these with fresh eyes.”

Mr Comyn said deputy chief executive David Cohen would take responsibility for complaints management.

Patricia Faulkner, deputy commissioner at the 2015 royal commission on family violence, will chair an external advisory panel advising executives on how to engage with customers, employees and the community.

Chair Catherine Livingstone told the AGM that CBA, which yesterday announced first-quarter unaudited cash profit fell 5.7 per cent to $2.5 billion, acknowledged the royal commission’s criticism that customers had suffered from the bank’s focus on profitability.

“When people or processes failed, there were neither the systems nor processes in place to identify and fix the problems, nor a sufficient sense of urgency to identify the root cause, and take steps to prevent similar issues arising again,” Ms Livingstone said.

“Our focus on improving overall customer satisfaction also obscured and distracted us from focusing on customer dissatisfaction, which would have alerted us to many of these issues sooner.”

The bank in August posted a 4.8 per cent drop in full-year profit to $9.23 billion, hit by a total of more than $1 billion in anti-money laundering fines, customer remediation and royal commission costs.

First-quarter unaudited earnings fell as higher funding costs and competition for borrowers putting pressure on margins.