Comminsure Practices and Financial Decisions

BUSINESS

TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
1. Comminsure practices and financial decisions...................................................................3
2. Coverage of CBA’s Corporate Responsibility Report.......................................................4
3. Comminsure Practice relative to CBA's CRR Report........................................................4
4. Sustainable or Social Outcomes of CBA matter or not......................................................5
5. Ethical principles breached by Comminsure in comparison to CBA's Code of Ethics......5
6. Ethical violation with reference to stakeholder..................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Commonwealth Wealth of Australia is a multinational Bank which provides financial
services and Comminsure is an insurance company for home, car, life and other products. In this
report, there is a discussion on social, environmental and governance practices adopted by it.
Corporate Social Responsibility focuses on long run strategy and intensifies financial well-being
of societies and communities (Dixon and Finnane, 2018). They follow correct things for
enhancement of business and customers. Unethical practices for stakeholders and customers will
be described in the report.
MAIN BODY
1. Comminsure practices and financial decisions
Comminsure is one of the largest Australia's insurers and an important insurance part of
Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA). It was involved in various fraudulent practices
including deleting of medical files, forcing to change opinions of doctors etc.
Its practices and financial decisions are described below:
Governance: Comminsure has adopted comprehensive framework of Corporate Governance
which balances performance of its employees. Company is committed and is considered as
responsible corporate taxpayer which integrate with all predominant tax laws (Nicholls, 2014).
Governance practice includes fair pricing for foreign exchange transactions and remuneration
principles that is suitable with market conditions and complies with regulatory demands.
Social: Comminsure social practice consists of reconciliation action plan, commitment towards
diversity, human rights position statement and financial commitment to people. It also builds
sustainable pattern into every aspect of business by identifying significance of code of conduct.
Environment and Climate: Comminsure is regularly evolving with practices and introducing
Environmental, Social and Governance Lending Commitment (ESG). It ensures that business
should not impact environment and support economic development through various renewable
programs.
Comminsure is an insurance company that provides financial security on various tangible
products. It also offers income protection and replace up to 75% in monthly instalments to meet
living standards (Lipworth, Kerridge and Ghinea, 2016). This would rather help injured or ill
person who is unable to work for particular time period.

2. Coverage of CBA’s Corporate Responsibility Report
Commonwealth Bank of Australia report includes high investment in educational field of
children as well as youth. Corporate Social Responsibility enhances financial well-being of
common public, communities, businesses and focus on long run strategies. CBA’s
responsibilities increase day by day and they continue to aim on innovation, education,
stakeholders and employees and Australian communities. Major highlights of report are:
1.Investment in Education was more than $16 million (Blue, 2016).
2.Smart financial education classes were delivered to more than 574,000 students.
3. 229 Youth-focussed organisations were awarded through Staff Community Fund.
4. Renewable energy projects have grown up to $2.8 billion.
Therefore, it has initiated many activities and programs and is divided into three pillars:
Role in Society: Group makes contribution to variety of programs in the form of cash and devote
its valuable time. It helped in launching new social enterprise which is set up by Australian
Social Ventures.
Role in People: Commonwealth Group has wide range of programs and strategies to provide
surety that stakeholders and related employees are respected and valued.
Way of Doing Business: It launched Reconciliation Action Plan and updated wealth
management which is an investment structure.
3. Comminsure Practice relative to CBA's CRR Report
Commonwealth Bank offers financial services and loans to customers. It sold
Comminsure Sovereign Hong Kong for $3.8 billion. But they are doing precise things for their
customers. Securities of Australians and investments Commission is among the investigating
Comminsure. It was reported that executives didn't pass bank claims after allegations and it is
rejecting or delaying pay-out to injured or ill customers. They have taken outstanding, robust
and compelling approach. CBA is providing financial services to businesses, people and
institutions. Comminsure has formalised response to climatic change and participated in growing
renewable sector (Cull and Bowyer, 2017). It has a strong perspective and wide approach
towards ESG considerations which outlined an intention to support opportunities relevant to
climatic change. Financial sector has also been at priority and integrated genuine changes
through significant initiatives by working with Australian Bankers Association.

There are other areas which have been considered as a driving force like indulgent in
education. Corporate Responsibility Report suggests that Comminsure encourages youth in
School Banking and various other Programs. They have also built an ability to deal with
customers who experience financial hurdles, domestic violence or any other hardships (Williams,
2016). Therefore, they launched Financial Inclusion Action Plan which would help and guide
people who were influenced by financial abuse by Comminsure and provided them independence
related to money.
4. Sustainable or Social Outcomes of CBA matter or not
Sustainable practices of CBA could be described as environmental, social and
governance programs. It created positive impact towards enhancement of a business structure.
They are governed under the strategy of Corporate Responsibility. Outcomes of these policies
provide quantitative basis to recognise and act on major responsibilities to improve supply chain,
investing activities, programs, commitments to value Human Rights.
Employees are being trained in ESG fundamentals and are guided to apply Risk
Assessment Tool. They are allowed to work with customers so that risks are mitigated and
properly identified. They help people to acquire skills and carry responsibilities to invest for the
well-being of community, business and society (Heywood, Hertzsch and Piechowski, 2015). It is
important because CBA plays major role in social and economic development. It supports
growth, opportunities, jobs for businesses and people. Decisions made by executives were
incomparable and capabilities were used to make affirmative contribution to set core business.
Sustainability would attract more customers and enhance its practices in this country.
On the other hand, social practices involve impact on Indigenous community programs,
Reconciliation Action Plan so that many Aboriginal and Torres Islander Australians will be
identified. Equality must be promoted among them for which investment has to be done.
Therefore, it is a part of sustainable programs conducted by CBA which matters a lot to operate
in the long run.
5. Ethical principles breached by Comminsure in comparison to CBA's Code of Ethics
Comminsure tormented a sick person who needed money and it had faced allegations like
doctors changed their opinions during cases etc Files of claimants were also missing in some
cases. These were major ethical misconduct by Comminsure employees, so systematic
demeanour must be followed by their customers. Their trust was broken by which the company

couldn’t dealt with utmost good faith. It has been regularly delaying claims to its customers who
are dying after doing documentation with Comminsure and it argued with them that if they had
organ transplant then it would have been good for them (Marozva, 2015). But CBA is negatively
affected by huge number of ethical issues but financially sound. Bank of Australia is regulated in
a proper and systematic way and is well-capitalized. CBA has full support as compared to
Comminsure due to inadequate evidence and sold policies to customers.
6. Ethical violation with reference to stakeholder.
Capital invested by Stakeholders made an unacceptable return to CBA. They considered
stock as unethical. For them, investment was not done with clear conscience. Different violations
were found with distinct stakeholders, as referred below-
 Violation with staff members and employees- Malpractice, fraudulent behaviour was
registered with the staff of Comminsure. It deleted and forged documents of customers
and accounted for small shares of CBA's total profit (McConnell, 2016). Huge number of
unethical employers are exploited and they are prevented from work. There is
discrimination made with older workers.
 Violation with customers- It mistreated customers and finally it will approve claims about
its ethical illness. Millions of dollars spent into life insurance by CBA on investigations.
CONCLUSION
Finally, it is concluded that this consisted of coverage, and practices of Comminsure. It
briefly described that sustainability is vital to CBA. But there are some ethical principles that
were being violated by the management since few years. Therefore, it will now rebut claims
made by its customers because ethical violations directly hit its reputation as it is an imperative
part of CBA.

REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Blue, L., 2016. Financial literacy education with Aboriginal people: The importance of culture
and context. Financial Planning Research Journal. 2(2). pp.91-106.
Cull, M. and Bowyer, D., 2017. Ethics in financial planning: myth, fact or rhetoric paradox. e-
Journal of Social & Behavioural Research in Business. 8(2). pp.56-69.
Dixon, K. and Finnane, G., 2018. S is for stakeholders, not shareholders: The shift in board
responsibility. Governance Directions. 70(6). p.322.
Heywood, C., Hertzsch, E. and Piechowski, M., 2015. The climatic influence on sustainable
refurbishments and life cycle investing in Australia. Property Management. 33(1). pp.19-
35.
Lipworth, W., Kerridge, I. and Ghinea, N., 2016. CommInsure scandal reminds us commercial
forces are at play in medicine.
Marozva, G., 2015. Liquidity and bank performance. The International Business & Economics
Research Journal (Online). 14(3). p.453.
McConnell, P., 2016. CommInsure case shows its time to target reckless misconduct in banking’.
The Conversation. 8.
Nicholls, S., 2014. Perpetuating the problem: neoliberalism, commonwealth public policy and
housing affordability in Australia. Australian Journal of Social Issues. 49(3). pp.329-347.
Williams, B., 2016. The impact of non-interest income on bank risk in Australia. Journal of
Banking & Finance. 73. pp.16-37.
Online
Policies and Practices. 2018. [Online]. Available Through:
<https://www.commbank.com.au/about-us/opportunity-initiatives/policies-and-
practices.html>