This year's the Commonwealth Bank of Australia's AGM was an especially long and drawn out affair, running for well over three hours as the bank's enthusiastic cohort of shareholders quizzed bank executives. It was however, a source of rich moments of drama and insight into the board's strategic thinking.
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David Turner speaka at CBA's 2014 AGM
In his opening remarks to shareholders, CBA chairman David Turner (pictured, left) laid out a strong year's performance, with a 12 per cent increase in cash net profit after tax, to A$8.68 billion for the year to June 2014.
Return on equity increased 50 basis points to 18.7 per cent, dividends were up to record levels, and all was going along smoothly.
That was until Turner started on issues relating to integrity, and the twin concepts of "trust and fairness", which was an obvious opening gambit into explaining how the bank's management team was dealing with the fallout from its financial planning debacle.
After once again apologising that "some customers received poor advice in the past", Turner - and CEO Ian Narev who followed him - went on to reiterate that changes had been made to that part of the CBA's business, including the implementation of "one of the most comprehensive staff training programs in the industry" and other plans to lift standards among the bank's financial planners.
Turner then introduced his second theme, relating to the environment and the bank's signing up to the Equator Principles III in May this year, noting "they are embedded in our project finance and advisory businesses, and we have started to apply them to all of our business lending."
"For corporate and business lending, we believe that categorising ESG risks on a loan by loan basis is leading practice among commercial banks," he said.
Once the floor was open to shareholders, Turner faced several pointed questions about the bank's move to sign up to the Equator Principles, all ending in a request that he, on behalf of the CBA, confirm that it would not be backing the Abbott Point coal port project in Queensland.
David Turner, a founding member of the Barrier Reef Foundation, refused to point blank rule out such a move, unlike global banks such as Deutsche Bank and HSBC.
Similarly, a resolution put to the meeting on behalf of the Australian Centre for Corporate Responsibility seeking to change CBA's constitution so that directors are obliged to report to shareholders their assessment of the amount of greenhouse gas emissions the bank is responsible for financing was not supported by the board. It failed by a very large margin, both on votes from shareholders at the meeting, and on proxies.
Responses from board members to subsequent questions on the bank's exposure to the fossil fuel sector as a proportion of its total loan book indicated that figure is less than two per cent.
Another contentious agenda item, Stephen Mayne's tilt at board membership, failed to garner even five per cent of the votes cast, despite enthusiastic support on his behalf from some "mum and dad" investors.
Some of the other points made - aside from complaints that the coffee ran out before all the shareholders had a chance to load up - were treated courteously by the senior board members, with execs such as David Craig being called into action from time to time for added technical details.
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And well they might have kept the conversation running, as the discussion turned up some helpful hints, ranging from ways to more clearly show how and why executive allocations of short-term incentive targets were calculated to a suggestion to split the shares on issue by a factor of five, reducing the bank's $80 share price a far less daunting $16.
Executives snapped to attention when one older shareholder asked why he was treated like a cardboard cut-out by the tellers when he had "a seven figure amount" in his bank account, before listing a few other problems like being defrauded and waiting two years to get his money back.
The board also announced the appointment of two new non-executive directors, Shirish Apte and David Higgins.