CBA more on the nose than taxman

THE Commonwealth Bank’s reputation has been so trashed by scandals that the public now like it even less than the taxman.

A poll of almost 6000 people showed CBA ranked 57th out of 60 major Australian organisations in terms of reputation.

That is 21 places lower than in last year’s Australian Cor- porate Reputation Index, and six places below the Australian Taxation Office.

The survey data released yesterday was collected between February 23 and March 16 — after CBA had been variously accused of breaching money-laundering and terrorism-funding laws, offering dodgy financial advice, misselling insurance and treating life insurance customers harshly.

CBA also found itself more poorly regarded than its big four banking rivals, with ANZ (35), NAB (43) and Westpac (48) largely unchanged from last year.

“While CBA has previously shown strong results in the individual drivers of leadership and citizenship, both these dimensions have dropped significantly this year,” Reputation Institute regional managing director Oliver Freedman said.

CBA’s drop was not as bad as troubled department store chain Myer, which fell 23 places to 45 and also scored last in terms of innovation.

Air New Zealand topped the poll for the second year, ahead of Toyota and Qantas.

Virgin Australia, Mazda, JB Hi-Fi, Australian Super, Murray Goulburn, Aldi and Samsung rounded out the top 10.