Former CBA executives not up to challenge
The failure by Commonwealth Bank senior management in 2016 to answer a challenge from the bank’s now chairman, Catherine Livingstone, about their handling of AUSTRAC AML-CTF issues convinced her of their incapacity to handle the challenges facing the company.
Giving testimony before the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry, Livingstone said the responses given by senior management at the time had persuaded her that the management “couldn’t or wouldn’t” handle the issues appropriately.
She said it was this incident that persuaded her that she should take on the role of chairman, even though she realised it would be one of the most demanding tasks she had ever taken on and would take years.
“What did I do? What I did from 1 January 2017 was put my reputation on the line to lead the fundamental changes that CBA had to make,” Livingstone said.
When counsel assisting the Royal Commission, Rowena Orr QC, questioned why Livingstone’s challenge was not recorded in the board’s minutes, the chairman said that she had nonetheless made the challenge and received a response.
Livingstone said that the minutes did not always reflect the detail of what was said and later agreed with Orr that a “challenge” with respect to the AUSTRAC issue had not been noted in the minutes.
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