A question. What's the difference between the Banks' Corporate Governance Statements and toilet paper? Answer. Toilet paper has some use.
Now seriously as a person who had oversight in developing these Corp. Govt Statements(CGS) and implementing them in a public company I can tell you how Directors view these documents:
1. Their view is "Just give us something that will get past the regulators".
2. They have no interest in spending any money to ENSURE the terms/values embodied in the CGS are implemented properly.
3. At Board Meetings they say "when can we get done with this boring CGS crap to get to the P&L results for the month?"
4. Directors have no interest in hearing bad news related to the CGS. Their first reaction is "how can we brush this under the carpet?"
5. Big companies for years they have been eliminating "non-value added roles and layers of management", like Internal Auditors, Risk Managers, etc. There are no more gatekeepers, and checks and balances. The CGS is covered in cobwebs by now
If these CGS's had any relevance the banks should have been able to say we have policies and procedures in place to stop things happening or at least detect and deal with them in a timely matter, and TAKE QUICK ACTION. So in my opinion a roll of toilet paper IS worth more than any CGS. Justice Hayne will never be able to conclusively say why all these financial atrocities brought to light by the Royal Commission happened. The Chairmen and MDs will NEVER come up with a concrete reason of the origin of the crimes. They will obfuscate, babble, protest and plead ignorance for sure, and slink back to their offices relieved they are not losing their jobs and bonuses and not going to gaol.
My advice to the poor mug consumers who get hammered by these charlatans is to get a BASIC education in accounting and finance to pick the rort before they sign up for it. Caveat Emptor has never been more relevant. Unfortunately, human nature being what it is will mean most can't be bothered to spend their time doing this sort of thing. Very sad really. Maybe we start teaching some basic finance in High School COMPULSORILY to equip everyone to handle their financial affairs better when they are over 18.
