Customer letters swamp CBA boss

COMMONWEALTH Bank chief Matt Comyn has been inundated with letters after he asked customers for feedback following a tumultuous period for the banking heavyweight.

Speaking at the group’s annual meeting yesterday, Mr Comyn said more than 10,000 customers had responded to his request.

The bank had sent letters to eight million customers on his behalf in September, apologising for “letting them down” and inviting feedback.

Mr Comyn — who started in the top job in April — said the flood of responses were a mixture of “complaints, compliments and general suggestions”.

It follows a period of turmoil for the bank, which has been embroiled in the fee-forno-service scandal engulfing the broader banking industry.

At the banking royal commission this year, it emerged the CBA had also been charging fees to the estates of deceased customers.

Separately, the bank has paid a $700 million fine for breaching antimoney-laundering rules by failing to properly monitor the use of ATMs that take deposits and alert authorities about suspicious transactions.

“My leadership team and I are personally engaging in longstanding disputes to review these with fresh eyes,” Mr Comyn told shareholders at the meeting in Brisbane yesterday.

He announced that Patricia Faulkner — the deputy commissioner at the 2015 royal commission on family violence — would chair an external ad- visory panel advising executives on how to better engage with customers, employees and the community.

Catherine Livingstone, who chairs the CBA board, said the banking royal commission had been “rightly critical of the financial services industry”.

“We also acknowledge the royal commission’s criticism that, too often, a focus on profitability disadvantaged some of our customers,” Ms Livingstone said.