Speaking at an event in Sydney yesterday, Mr Narev defended himself after being questioned about the length of time it was taking to address claims from customers who were victims of bad financial advice.
“We are actually proud of the way we’re now responding through the open advice review program,” he said.
Despite this, Mr Narev conceded that the compensation process was “slow”.
“You’ve got to accept in the short term you’ll wear some criticism for appearing slow, but in the long term you make sure you’re putting things right,” he said.
“What we weren’t doing [was] a good enough job listening to those voices saying actually the experience we had wasn’t the right experience and we have more to tell you.”
Registrations for the Commonwealth Bank’s Open Advice Review program closed at the beginning of July, but some applicants may not see their claims assessed until the end of 2016.
It has been a year since Commonwealth Bank chief executive Ian Narev opened the scheme, which aims to compensate victims who lost money via its financial planning arm.
Since then, more than 22,000 customers have expressed an interest, with about 7,000 confirming they would like their financial advice reviewed.
However, a CBA spokesperson told ifa at the time of closure that customers may not see their claims resolved this year.
“We expect it will take all of this year and most of 2016 to complete the assessments,” the spokesperson said.
With its results due in three weeks, Mr Narev added that the bank remains focused on its long-term objectives.
“We keep our eyes on the long term, that’s the objective function, that’s what we’re aiming towards,” he said.
Mr Narev said that it’s not CBA’s goal to surprise investors by unanticipated outperformance, but to show consistency.
“We say to ourselves that our goal as an institution is to be successful for our customers and our stakeholders for the long term.
“We do our best to make sure that every time we get to an update on how we’re going for the long term, we’ve done well enough to show consistency, that we’re accountable for what we said we’re going to do and we’re keeping investors’ confidence.”
No doubt proud of the fact that have made it through the financial year with no compensation payouts, no effect on profits and – therefore – no effect on executive bonuses. Congratulations all round I’d say.
What an arrogant man. Your business model is the reason these advisers did what they did. They are coerced into following the company line or else. This industry is being destroyed by the banks in their drive for more obscene profits at the expense of all else.
We have pensioners who are still waiting for compensation assessment. They are not living well because of “advice” received and it is our opinion they will be eligible for compensation based on compliance and technical errors. The question is, how long will they have to wait to improve their quality of life with the outcome of the investigation? Proud ? Wow. Makes me ashamed of our profession.
If the desired result is to minimise executive fall out and CBA payments in compensation the CEO has done a fantastic job. But I believe all victims would disagree as the outcome they are looking for is compensation for the inappropriate and misleading advise provided by FINANCIAL WISDOM and CBA financial planning – and the victims continue to wait. Ian should give himself a pay increase !