Commonwealth Bank yesterday confirmed it is considering options to return capital to shareholders once it overcomes regulatory hurdles impeding its asset sale program.Chief executive Matt Comyn said the bank expected to be sitting on A$6 billion of surplus capital as soon as a string of asset sales are completed in the current year."We will continue to invest in our businesses but there is a reasonable expectation that some of that capital will be returned to investors," he told analysts on Wednesday.The CBA boss did not give any details as to what form the capital return might take, saying only that any initiative would be subject to the approval of the bank's directors.CBA is trying to offload a swathe of wealth management and Asian operations as part of Comyn's strategy to simplify and de-risk the bank's business model.While the sale of several businesses, including the global asset management arm, have been completed, the bank has encountered delays in China where it is seeking regulatory approval to flick a 37.5 per cent stake in BoComm Life to Japan's Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Company.The deal, which is expected to release almost $900 million of capital, is of extra importance because it must be completed before CBA can collect another $2.5 billion for offloading its Australian life insurance arm to American insurer, AIA.Mystery surrounds why the BoComm Life transaction has stalled after the bank announced in May 2018 that it expected the deal to be approved in the 2019 financial year.There has been speculation that the delay might be linked to compliance problems identified in BoComm Life's business in November 2017 or, might even represent collateral damage in the global trade war raging between China and the USA.When asked yesterday whether he thought either factor was weighing on Chinese regulators Comyn said he was "confident" they were having no bearing on the process.Instead, he appeared to indicate that the delay might be attributable to the bank's lack of familiarity with Chinese regulatory procedures."We don't have a lot of experience going through the regulatory process in China," he said.The stalled Chinese and Australian insurance sales dashed the hopes of institutional investors who had been hopeful the bank would declare a special dividend of up to $1 per share as part of the 2019 profit announcement.The delays have forced Comyn to consider another way to expedite the Australian insurance transaction that could support a capital return early next year.CBA revealed in its latest set of accounts that it had developed an "alternative path" for sealing the Australian insurance deal with AIA if Chinese regulators fail to wave through the BoComm Life sale before the end of September."The group and AIA are also well progressed in exploring an alternative path to complete the CommInsure Life transaction prior to the transfer of the Group's stake in BoComm Life," the bank states in 2019 financial report."This alternative path is expected to be subject only to Australian regulatory approvals and would result in overall financial outcomes for CBA that are not