Any new banking code of practice needs to be the subject of intense public scrutiny before it is implemented, according to the Finance Sector Union (FSU).
Commenting on Australian Bankers’ Association (ABA) proposals to recast the code of practice in the wake of the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry, the FSU national secretary, Julia Angrisano argued that any new code would need to address organisational culture.
She said the FSU believed that genuine cultural change would be critical to restoring the Australian community’s trust in the finance sector.
“To that end we will always work co-operatively with the ABA and the broader sector to improve culture, but we will have no hesitation in calling out poor banking behaviour by senior executives,” Agrisano said.
“The credibility of self-regulation is hanging by a thread,” she said. “It is now up to the finance sector to restore credibility through good faith compliance with the code.”
