Australia's banking sector needs "a sharp break with the past", wrote the reviewer of its pay practices, Stephen Sedgwick, in his final report on the matter.Sharp, though, does not mean short, with Sedgwick suggesting a three-year time frame for reform and a follow-up review in 2020.A number of banks, including the four majors, have announced plans to implement, more or less in full, the roadmap in Sedgwick's report.While allowing three years (to cater to system changes), Sedgwick wrote that he did not believe that the industry "has the luxury of time if it is to address these issues credibly." "I congratulate them and encourage both them and others to be bold and move fast in the directions proposed in this review."He said that adoption of his recommendations would mean, over time, that: incentives are no longer paid to any in-scope retail staff based directly or solely on sales performance; instead, eligibility to receive any personal variable reward and incentive payments will have regard to an assessment of that individual's contribution across a range of measures, of which sales (if included at all) will not be the dominant component and the maximum available payments will be scaled back significantly for some roles; and retail bank culture will be demonstrably ethically and customer oriented.