Royal Commission Calls on CEOs to Front Extra Round
(20 July 2018 - Australia) Commissioner Kenneth Hayne has announced information for the royal commission’s next three rounds with the last focusing on policy questions arising from the first six rounds featuring the Big Four majors CEOs.
The hearings will take place after the September 30 deadline for Commissioner Hayne's interim report and the upcoming sixth round of hearings set to encompass insurance between September 10 and September 21. The addition of CEO consultation was widely expected since the outset of the commission in February 2018.
The Big Four arguably have decided that the sector won't move on from the ongoing customer trust and public relations backlash until the CEOs appear before the commissioner to directly address a broad range of outstanding issues. Legal, strategy and public relations teams inside the banks have been preparing for this eventuality since even before the royal commission was announced.
The sixth round of hearings will include disaster insurance, which was held over from the previous round on remote communities that took place in Brisbane and Darwin. The next round of hearings begin 6 August and cover superannuation – importantly not the SMSF sector which was in focus this week following Westpac’s decision to cease property lending to SMSFs for both residential and commercial investments. In addition to misconduct and conduct falling below community standards and expectations it will also explore instances where retirement savings have not been deployed in the best interests of the members. The royal commission also indicated that Commissioner Hayne had begun writing the interim report, indicating the report would only deal with topics raised in the first four rounds of hearings including consumer credit, financial advice, small business loans, farming finance and Indigenous interactions with financial services institutions (FSIs).
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