Narev takes CBA on mission impossible
A superlative and even improbable customer service goal emerged as one pillar of the posturing by Ian Narev, managing director of Commonwealth Bank, at a closely followed hearing of the House of Representatives' Standing Committee on Economics in Canberra yesterday.Quizzed on the bank's longer-term response to well aired controversies centred on the insurance arm CommInsure and a clutch of financial planning entities, Narev declared that "fairness means high levels of customer satisfaction."In turn, he explained, "that means uniform levels of customer satisfaction."Narev reprised this theme when parrying later questions on misconduct.The bank, he said, aims to "make sure every individual customer outcome improves".Narev soon echoed this when asked to responds to claims of "a culture of bad behaviour" by promising devotion to "every customer".The bank chief told the committee he'd met many aggrieved customers, often customers featured in media reports.The impact of this journalism is real, Narev acknowledging he'd learned of acute cases, at least relating to CommInsure, through the media this year.He was, when pressed over consequences, forced to admit that up to three years on, no-one at Comminsure had been shown the door over any of the cases referred to."There are certainly individuals who we know enough about that have had discussions with them, have had some consequences related to remuneration," said Narev, who added, "At this stage we have not had individuals terminated as a result of this because we have not seen the need to do that."