Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) chairwoman Catherine Livingstone yesterday defended her testimony to a financial inquiry that she had raised governance concerns with senior management, even though lawyers said there were no records of her doing so.
Livingstone was also grilled over why the head of the scandal-hit retail division was later appointed CEO and why executive bonuses were only affected after events were reported in the media rather than when the board became aware of them.
In her second day on the witness stand at the quasi-judicial inquiry, Livingstone said she had confronted management at a board meeting in late 2016 after regulators warned the bank about breaches of anti-money laundering and terror-financing laws (AML/CTF).
“Do you accept that they [the minutes] don’t record a very significant exchange that you say occurred at this meeting, but which we have no record of?” barrister assisting the inquiry Rowena Orr asked.
“I do accept that, but I am also aware that I am giving evidence under oath. To the best of my recollection, it was at the October board meeting that I challenged management in relation to the AML/CTF reports,” Livingstone said.
Australia’s largest bank in May agreed to pay a record A$700 million (US$506.56 million) fine to settle charges brought late last year over tens of thousands of breaches of AML/CTF laws.
The scandal led to a scathing report by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority about the bank’s governance shortcomings.
Livingstone, who became chairwoman a few months before the breaches became public, said the board had cut directors’ pay in response to the scandal, but that former chairman David Turner had refused a request to return 40 percent of his final year’s fees.
From its first hearings in February, the Australian Royal Commission inquiry has revealed systemic wrongdoing and a pervasive culture of greed at CBA and other banks.
The money-laundering allegations and other scandals severely damaged CBA’s brand and led to the departure of former CEO Ian Narev in April.
On Tuesday, chief executive Matt Comyn also blamed previous management for the bank’s failings, although at the time he was head of retail banking overseeing one of the most scandal-hit divisions.
Asked at the inquiry whether Comyn was an appropriate choice to replace Narev, Livingstone said his character and ability to admit mistakes were factors that helped the board decide in his favor.
She said that since the 2011 financial year the bank had not reduced an executive’s short-term bonus because of “a risk-related issue” unless it had been made public.
The barrister asked what message that sent.
“Well, clearly that there will only be consequence if there is a public event, a media event,” she said.
FALLING BEHIND: Samsung shares have declined more than 20 percent this year, as the world’s largest chipmaker struggles in key markets and plays catch-up to rival SK Hynix Samsung Electronics Co is laying off workers in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand as part of a plan to reduce its global headcount by thousands of jobs, sources familiar with the situation said. The layoffs could affect about 10 percent of its workforces in those markets, although the numbers for each subsidiary might vary, said one of the sources, who asked not to be named because the matter is private. Job cuts are planned for other overseas subsidiaries and could reach 10 percent in certain markets, the source said. The South Korean company has about 147,000 in staff overseas, more than half
TECH PARTNERSHIP: The deal with Arizona-based Amkor would provide TSMC with advanced packing and test capacities, a requirement to serve US customers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is collaborating with Amkor Technology Inc to provide local advanced packaging and test capacities in Arizona to address customer requirements for geographical flexibility in chip manufacturing. As part of the agreement, TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, would contract turnkey advanced packaging and test services from Amkor at their planned facility in Peoria, Arizona, a joint statement released yesterday said. TSMC would leverage these services to support its customers, particularly those using TSMC’s advanced wafer fabrication facilities in Phoenix, Arizona, it said. The companies would jointly define the specific packaging technologies, such as TSMC’s Integrated
An Indian factory producing iPhone components resumed work yesterday after a fire that halted production — the third blaze to disrupt Apple Inc’s local supply chain since the start of last year. Local industrial behemoth Tata Group’s plant in Tamil Nadu, which was shut down by the unexplained fire on Saturday, is a key linchpin of Apple’s nascent supply chain in the country. A spokesperson for subsidiary Tata Electronics Pvt yesterday said that the company would restart work in “many areas of the facility today.” “We’ve been working diligently since Saturday to support our team and to identify the cause of the fire,”
China’s economic planning agency yesterday outlined details of measures aimed at boosting the economy, but refrained from major spending initiatives. The piecemeal nature of the plans announced yesterday appeared to disappoint investors who were hoping for bolder moves, and the Shanghai Composite Index gave up a 10 percent initial gain as markets reopened after a weeklong holiday to end 4.59 percent higher, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dived 9.41 percent. Chinese National Development and Reform Commission Chairman Zheng Shanjie (鄭珊潔) said the government would frontload 100 billion yuan (US$14.2 billion) in spending from the government’s budget for next year in addition
RSS