Code of Conduct and Ethics for Commonwealth Bank of Australia

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Business Ethics
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Introduction
Commonwealth Bank of Australia is the biggest bank in Australia. The purpose of the
assessment is to give an elaborate code of conduct and ethics to one of the most recognizable
institution in Australian financial industry. There are five important aspects that will be assessed
and emphasized of any aspect of code of conduct, which includes; exploitation, discrimination,
dishonest, corruption, enforcement and whistleblower. Code of conduct are the set of rules that
the company outlines in the social norms, responsibilities and religious rules for proper practice
of an employee (Chell, et al, 2016).
Background of the Company
Commonwealth Bank of Australia abbreviated as CommBank or CBA is a multinational
financial institution which operated all across the world. It has branches in New Zealand,
Europe, Asia and America. it was established in 1911 by the Australian government and is the
biggest bank in Australia and the biggest company listed in the Australian Stock
Exchange( ASX). It was however fully privatized in 1996 by the government. It has a range of
business including corporate and retail banking, investment, brokerage services, funds
management and superannuation. It is one of the big four banks in Australia which includes;
National Australian Bank (NAB), ANZ and Westpac. The bank was listed in the ASX in the year
1991. In 2018 a report released by the royal commission into misconduct in the banking industry
showed an increase in bad culture within the bank with increased allegation of money
laundering, fraud , deception and other various aspects of crime (Crane and Matten, 2016).
Code of Conduct

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This is the pillar for the sensitive and operational activities involving the commonwealth
bank of Australia. It is important to build a simple, clear and easy code of conduct which follows
the banks mission, vision and values. It must be able to handle all the stakeholders involved with
the bank from the directors, managers, employees and suppliers. These are the most important
audience to the matter (Ferrell, and Fraedrich, 2015).
Vision
To excel in securing and enhancing the well-being of people financially, communities and
businesses underpinned by the company’s integrity, excellence, accountability, service and
collaboration.
A. Discrimination
Based on the definition by the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), a discriminatory
incident occurs when a person or a group is discriminated based on their inclination to a specific
background like religion, sex orientation or any other distinctions. One may be in disadvantage
for this. The bank must have a clear policy on discrimination and illustrate how to deal with any
discriminatory action provided occurring in the bank. A notable incident of discrimination was
when the head of finance accused the bank of discrimination based on his age and sex. The
operations head Marshall was 60 years and lost the job to an Australian lady who was 13 years
his younger and it was against his will. For avoidance of further issues, CommBank established a
policy that no discrimination based on sexuality or age will be tolerated. Bullying and