Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) has sacked 41 employees due to revelations uncovered during the Royal Commission.
The big bank CEOs of Matt Comyn from CBA and Brian Hartzer from Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC) were talking to MPs in Canberra on Thursday.
What the Bank CEOs have said so far:
A key revelation from the hearing so far is the Commonwealth Bank has sacked 41 employees and a further nine have resigned during the investigation.
CEO Comyn claimed he had been meeting with banking victims, but when pressed on how many he had actually met it turned out he had met with “less than 10”.
By lunchtime, he had agreed to have six meetings with customers who had been at the hearing, whereas originally he was only going to meet one.
Yesterday Commonwealth Bank announced it would stop charging deceased customers fees. In a humorous moment, Labor MP Matt Keogh asked Comyn: “Do you really need the Royal Commission to tell you that?”
Westpac’s turn:
Westpac CEO Hartzer admitted he hadn’t actually met any banking victims so far, although he has watched videos of victims in the Royal Commission.
When asked, again by Mr Keogh, if executives should be held personally responsible for systematic failures Mr Hartzer responded: “My understanding is that’s what the BEAR regime does“. This is the Banking Executive Accountability Regime.
One final revelation from the Westpac CEO is that the performance of the bank’s interest-only loan book has “reduced quite quickly” in the past year and a half. Even so, around 35% of Westpac’s loan book is interest-only. Recently, rumours were circling that Westpac would cut funding to many interest-only investor customers.
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia share price is down 2.5% and the Westpac Banking Corp share price is down 2.2% today, with share markets falling heavily.
Learn From Australia’s Best* Investors
The Rask Group’s Australian Investors Podcast is fast becoming Australia’s #1 podcast for serious investors. It provides unique insights from Australia’s best investors, entrepreneurs, authors and financial thinkers. Download the latest episode free on iTunes, Castbox, YouTube or wherever you choose to listen.
*As voted by us
