Corporate Governance Failure: An Analysis of Commonwealth Bank of Australia's Money Laundering Scandal

This annotated bibliography analyzes the corporate governance failure of Commonwealth Bank of Australia's money laundering scandal. It discusses the factors at the individual, group, and organizational levels that led to the scandal, as well as the post-failure responses of the bank. Recommendations for improvement are also provided.

Running Head: Annotated Bibliography 0
Annotated Bibliography
Student’s Name
10/29/2018

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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................1
Organizational Behavior Factors.....................................................................................................2
Individuals 2
Group Level 4
Organizational Level 5
Post Failure Responses....................................................................................................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................8
Introduction
In the current world, many of the cases are being reported on a daily basis in which corporates
held responsible for the breach of corporate governance. Corporate governance is a subject that
provides an idol manner of the act to the companies. Recently, Commonwealth Bank of Australia
also hold responsible for the breach of corporate governance principles. The issue has been
started when in August 2017, Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC)
has made an allegation to the bank and stated that the same has breached the provisions of
money laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws of the nation (Austrlian Government,
2018). In the findings, the bank itself been agreed on the fact that it has breached the provisions
of Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 on 53,750 occasions
(Ags.gov.au, 2018).
The bank failed to provide the reports related to around 53000 accounts that were required to
submit with Austrac. The bank also failed to report the suspicious matter within the period. It
was a serious breach that has affected many of the stakeholders. The lead stakeholders were

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shareholders of the company as they have faced ultimate loss. Resulted of the subjective money
laundering scandal, the bank had to pay penalty worth $700 million (Doran and Janda, 2018). It
brought an adverse impact on the financial condition of the company and therefore shareholders
faced a huge loss directly. The other loss, which shareholders faced, was a significant downfall
in the market prices of shares. Being the investors of the company, they had a huge interest in the
affairs of the company as any downfall in the financial condition of the company could reduce
the level of their investments.
The other stakeholder was Austrac and Royal Banking Commission. Being a regulator, the
authority got affected by the breach. In addition to authority and shareholders, the customers of
the bank were main stakeholders. Their money was deposited with the bank and a huge penalty
leads a danger over the safety of their deposits. Further, the scandal affected the organization as a
whole. The organization was a bank that consisted of interest of the public. The breach was a
huge concern as it attracted a penalty worth $700 million to the company that was a significant
amount itself. Apart from the monetary loss, the bank also faced a loss of goodwill
(News.com.au, 2018). The market price of shares went down and the bank lost the trust of the
public. The matter was also serious as the same consisted an issue of money laundering which is
a huge concern for the government of any nation. Being one of the largest banks of the nation, it
was the responsibility of the management of the bank to comply with all the applicable
provisions to the bank but the same failed to do so.
The management of the bank was responsible for the discussed breach. Austrac alleged that in
2012, the bank was required to assess the risk of the machine in respect to money laundering
activities but the management of the bank did not do so till 2015 (Duran, 2018). In the further

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activities also, management did not act like a responsible person and pull the company till the
boundary of penalties.
Organizational Behavior Factors
Individuals
Every organization consists many of the individuals. These individual works on different posts.
No doubt that the management of an organization developed plans and procedures for an
organization, some individuals also plays crucial roles in the working of the company. These are
the people that affect an organization in several ways. Different individuals have their different
personality and thinking. Thinking of management of the CBA as an individual, this can be
stated that on an individual level they had stress and moral pressure for the development of the
bank. CBA is a very large bank and in such a situation it was the responsibility to of the director
to keep the same on that position and hence they have breached the ethics in order to make their
organization more strong in a financial perspective.
Two kinds of individuals are there in the cases of unethical deeds. One who remains directly
involved in an unethical act and another one who watches the issue and acknowledge the same
rather than reporting of such issue. Dr. Benjamin Koh, the former medical officer of CBA stated
that CBA was used to bullying it is legal and medical experts (Danckert, 2016). This statement
proves that it was not only the management of the company that was aware of unethical practices
but internal stakeholders were also there who were witnessed of such unethical practices.
Although this example is not directly related to the money laundering and fraud scandals of the
organization, yet this shows what kind of individuals were there. They all were focusing on their

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targets, were working for the money, facing stress for one or more reasons and ignoring the
whistle blowing policy of the company.
Emotions are another aspect to study when it comes to the study of individual behavior. Work
pressure and stress are the lead causes of negative emotions (webmd.com, 2018). As a positive
emotion plays their role in the development of good practices, negative emotions lead the issue
of unethical practices (Barsky, 2011). People at their individual level were not responsible and
therefore the bank has never assessed the risk. The group head of anti-money laundering had not
taken any reasonable steps to send the suspicious matter report (SMR) to Austrac (Evans and
Yeates, 2018).
Group Level
Behind every breach of corporate governance or ethics, in addition to individuals, some groups
are there. In every organization, some factors are there that provokes the individuals and groups
to commit fraud and to get involved in similar kind of activities. Moving forward to the chosen
organization i.e. commonwealth bank of Australia, this is to be stated that a variety of reasons
were there behind this scandal.
Organizational Culture
Firstly, this is to be mention that the lead factor was competition. The behavior of an
organization is way much affected by the level of competition that an organization faces.
Today’s world is a world of competition and CBA was also facing the same. Wstpac, National
Bank of Australia and other financial institutions were there in the competition with CBA. This
was one of the lead reason that the company has set aside it is ethical policies and became
involved in fraudulent money laundering activities. It became the culture of the organization to

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always ignore the policies and plans of the company. The statement can be supported by the fact
that even after the existence of several ethical policies, company been alleged for several
breaches.
Group processes are also a part of organizational culture. In the CBA, most of the groups of the
bank, whether the management or employees were involved in the processes that were lead to
make the financial position of the company better irrespective of the facts of good corporate
governance (Ellman and Christou, 2010). Directors, as well as the financial officers of the bank,
were aware of the true condition of the bank and they were aware with the breach of the same,
yet the waited for the penalty notices from the sides of authority. It was the organizational
culture in CBA to ignore the laws and to pay the penalties.
Organizational Level
On the website of the company, under the head of culture, the bank has stated that the same is
accountable and responsible (commbank.com.au, 2018). Nevertheless, this would not be wrong
to be stated that the bank only developed policies on papers and never implemented the same in
practical. The money laundering scandal is not the only scandal of the bank, but in addition to
this, the bank alleged for breaches of corporate governance many times. Directors were not so
serious about ethics and therefore the other people from management did take the same casually.
It became organizational behavior to always ignore the issues reported by the authorities and to
pay the fines and penalties. The lead focus of the organization was on profit making. It is very
common that ethics and profits making activities are very typical to go in one way together and
this was the reason of such scandal as the bank chosen profit building over the practice of ethics.

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The other factor was the risk management policy of the company. The bank has developed
several risk management policy that reflected under annual reports of the bank as well as on the
website of the same. However, there was no proper system to ensure the implication of these
policies. Directors of the company were engaged in the development of other business and never
took the warning letters of Austrac seriously.
Control System of the organization was also in a failure. The bank was being alleged for the
breach of corporate governance repeatedly, yet the company has not made any control policies to
prevent such cases. Control system is a method by which the targeted activities are focused to be
prevented. In the case of CBA, the management has not developed any control system at the
organizational level.
Post Failure Responses
The money laundering scandal was a great failure of corporate governance and was a terrible
ethical breached. As discussed under the aforesaid discussion that many failures were there in the
working system of the bank. The subjective scandal resulted in a heavy penalty to the bank and
this is the reason that after this case, the bank has made certain changes in the plans, policies, and
working of the company. In addition to the penalty, the bank also faced a terrible downfall in the
market price of shares and class actions (Farrer, 2018).
When the case was going on, the bank has cut down the bonuses of it is executives and started an
overhaul at the level of the board. Mr. Ian Narev, CEO of the company apologized to the
stakeholders and also stepped down from his post at the end of the financial year (Bbc.com,
2017).

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The lead reason behind the scandal was the inappropriate and limitless use of ATM machines. To
prevent the further issues of a similar kind, the bank has put a cap of deposit amount as $20000
per day, which as further revised as $10000 per day (Yeates, 2018). This limit is applicable
irrespective of the number of the transaction per day. In addition to this, the bank is more aware
to comply with the provisions of applicable laws and also focusing on the implication of
corporate governance policies. These changes are expected to achieve the goals of good
corporate governance practices. In addition to this, the bank has made these changes with the
goals to prevent fraudulent activities with the organization. In order to check the effectiveness of
such steps taken by the bank, this can be stated that some cases have reported in the current year
in which bank again breached the provisions of corporate governance. This would not be
wrongful to say that CBA has not taken any lesson from the past incidents (Pash, 2018). The
bank is repeating the same mistake. As discussed above, that on every level there was some
failure hence the bank was required to share the lesson of past incident across the organization.
The plans developed after the scandals could prove beneficial for all the stakeholders of the
company and for the company itself if used effectively. Certain recommendations can be
provided to the bank in the area of making those changes effective. Firstly, the bank should
develop detailed plans and policies for the indoor management of the company and also develop
a proper procedure to ensure the implementation of the same as bank always get fail in this step.
Further, the bank should focus on the behavioral aspect on it is management and other officers
and should do all the activities that the same can do to develop a good corporate governance
environment. At last, the bank should also develop a focus on the leadership style of group
leaders and should make changes if required as leadership theory affect the working style and
ethical theory of many others,

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Conclusion
CBA committed a significant breach of money laundering laws and faced many issues. Many
reasons were there behind this breach including individual behavior and organizational culture.
Bank has amended it is policies after the breach but the same has not proven effective. The bank
is required to review the whole issue again and focus on the implications of ethical policies in
real life.
References
Ags.gov.au. (2018) AGS helped AUSTRAC on largest civil penalty in Australian corporate
history. [online] Available from:
https://www.ags.gov.au/publications/news/AGS_AUSTRAC_largest_%20civil_penalty_in_
%20Aust_history_6Jun18.html [Accessed on 29/10/2018]
Austrlian Government. (2018) AUSTRAC and CBA agree $700m penalty
http://www.austrac.gov.au/media/media-releases/austrac-and-cba-agree-700m-penalty [Accessed
on 29/10/2018]
Barsky, A., 2011. Investigating the effects of moral disengagement and participation on unethical
work behavior. Journal of business ethics, 104(1), p.59.
Bbc.com. (2017) Commonwealth Bank head to retire amid money laundering claims. [online]
Available from: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-40920218 [Accessed on 29/10/2018]

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commbank.com.au. (2018). Corporate governance. [online] Available from:
https://www.commbank.com.au/about-us/shareholders/corporate-profile/corporate-
governance.html [Accessed on 29/10/2018]
Danckert, S. (2016) CBA accused of bullying as regulator APRA asked to prosecute bank staff.
[online] Available from: https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/cba-accused-of-
bullying-as-regulator-apra-asked-to-prosecute-bank-staff-20160506-goo0ww.html [Accessed on
29/10/2018]
Doran, M., and Janda, M. (2018). Commonwealth Bank to pay $700m fine for anti-money
laundering, terror financing law breaches. [online] Available from:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-04/commonwealth-bank-pay-$700-million-fine-money-
laundering-breach/9831064 [Accessed on 29/10/2018]
Duran, P. (2018) Commonwealth Bank blames 'coding error' for alleged money-laundering
breaches. [online] Available from: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-australia-cba-
moneylaundering/commonwealth-bank-blames-coding-error-for-alleged-money-laundering-
breaches-idUSKBN1AM0TM [Accessed on 29/10/2018]
Ellman, M. and Pezanis-Christou, P., 2010. Organizational structure, communication, and group
ethics. American Economic Review, 100(5), pp.2478-91.
Evans, M., and Yeates, C. (2018). Eleven already jailed over CBA money laundering syndicates.
[online] Available from: https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/eleven-already-
jailed-over-cba-money-laundering-syndicates-20170804-gxps8l.html [Accessed on 29/10/2018]

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Farrer, M. (2018) Commonwealth Bank profit falls amid money-laundering scandal. [online]
Available from:https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/feb/07/commonwealth-bank-
profit-falls-amid-money-laundering-scandal
News.com.au (2018) ‘Don’t jump to conclusions’: CBA boss.
https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/banking/dont-jump-to-conclusions-cba-boss/news-
story/54d70767ec718bc77bb8755c2a3d97f8 [Accessed on 29/10/2018]
Pash, C., (2018). How the Commonwealth Bank lost its way. [online] Available from:
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/commonwealth-bank-culture-failure-apra-2018-5 [Accessed
on 29/10/2018]
webmd.com. (2018) What Is Stress? [online] Available from:
https://www.webmd.com/balance/stress-management/what-is-stress#1[Accessed on 29/10/2018]
Yeates. (2018) CBA halves cash deposit limit amid Austrac action. [online] Available from:
https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/cba-halves-cash-deposit-limit-amid-
austrac-action-20180308-p4z3hn.html [Accessed on 29/10/2018]