Orr wheels drive hard for breacheads
A merciless finale on Friday from lead counsel assisting Rowena Orr has produced the first of many catalogues of misconduct in banking that will form one pillar of the work of the Hayne royal commission this year.Orr, over two weeks of hearings in Melbourne that concluded last week, has asserted herself as the public face of a public inquiry for which Kenneth Hayne is commissioner.On her feet for roughly two thirds of the hearing time so far, Orr is the voice of authority leading a probe that, if nothing else, has busted preconceptions (among consumer lobbies, for example) that the terms of reference for Hayne's inquiry were softer than soft and that the process was designed to ensure banks were not investigated in any thorough manner.With a comprehensive wrap up on Friday afternoon, Orr confirmed the preparedness, even zeal, driving Hayne's inquiry.Banks taking risks over the manner and detail of their engagement with the commission received lashings over their homework. Orr chided Westpac for supplying last-minute material on a further 80 cases, with the bank telling the commission "it did not take account of some categories of data."Commonwealth Bank, Orr told Hayne on Friday afternoon, provided "further material" as recently at that morning. She said these new self-disclosures cover "at least 41 significant events of which seven involve responsible lending issues relating to home and personal loans, credit cards, and overdraft facilities."Aussie Home Loan, part of the CBA group, also provided new material that detailed "29 events involving brokers submitting false or misleading information, and documents to lenders or providing misleading information to customers," Orr told Hayne.In four instances, she explained, "the brokers involved were convicted of criminal offences, the same four brokers who were the subject of the evidence in the Aussie Home Loans case study in these hearings."Further late arrivals from CBA and AHL were documents with "references to 19 events involving breaches of the National Credit Act, including incidents where brokers did not make reasonable inquiries or verify the financial situation of customers, and there are references to 134 events involving either a breach of a broker or franchise agreement or a breach of policy. For industry insiders, the case studies examined in the first round of hearings may seem old hat. NAB managing director Andrew Thorburn even circulated an open letter on the first day of these recent hearings that asserted twice that the matters were "well known". They weren't, as that day's exposé on a corrupt "syndicate" of NAB branch managers coordinating a flood of irresponsible lending confirmed.Typical of the institutionalised dud behaviour are charges from Orr such as:• "ANZ failed to comply with ASIC regulatory guide 209", the one that deals with "responsible lending conduct";• "ANZ failed to comply with the Banking Code of Practice";• "ANZ failed to comply with its obligations under the Corporations Act toprovide a written report to ASIC within 10 business days of becoming aware of the errors, which constituted significant breaches of its obligation to do all thingsnecessary to