CBA compensation amount totals $23m



The Commonwealth Bank's (CBA) has completed the assessment of all remaining cases in its Open Advice Review Program (OARP), with the bank offering a final compensation amount of $23 million to date.
Global regulatory consultancy firm, Promontory Financial Group, announced the completion of the assessment process, adding that more than 8,600 cases had been assessed.
The cases stemmed from clients of Commonwealth Financial Planning and Financial Wisdom who may have received poor advice between September 2003 and July 2012.
The final compensation amount included interest.
CBA executive general manager, Advice Review program, Leif Gamertsfelder, said: "The update from Promontory today is another step towards our goal of putting things right for customers who received poor advice in the past and providing reassurance to the large majority of customers who received appropriate advice at the time".
"Our priority now is to work with customers who are considering their assessment outcome, or their independent customer advocate, and respond to any queries or address any concerns they have as soon as possible."
Customers receive access to an independent customer advocate as well as an independent review panel, according to CBA.
Promontory said it was finalising its review of cases recently assessed by CBA and would release its final report on 31 March. The final report would also provide overall conclusions of the entire independent review, which spanned over a couple of years.
CBA contacted over 350,000 households to invite them to register for the OARP, which was established in July 2014, with the deadline closing on 3 July, 2015.
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