CBA chief executive officer Matt Comyn has claimed the CBA's investment in credit analysis has given it an edge over other banks – irrespective of proposed changes to responsible lending laws – while also calling for buy now pay later operators to be brought into the same regulatory system.

The Commonwealth Bank CEO, accompanied by his deputy CEO, David Cohen, appeared before the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics yesterday. In his opening remarks Comyn stated that, "of the 158,000 home loans where payments were put on hold, almost all have exited deferral. This is equally true of the approximately 83,000 business loans customers of the Commonwealth Bank."

This led to several exchanges on lending rules between the CBA executives and the MPs.

Under enthusiastic questioning from Committee member Jason Falinski over the effect on his bank's operations if constraints imposed by responsible lending laws were to be repealed, Comyn said CBA had invested in systems and people – "one of the reasons why we've continued to grow [CBA's lending book] at one half times system growth" for the six months to December 2020.

He expected CBA to lend A$100 billion in home loans over the course of the year, whether or not the rules on income verification were repealed.

Comyn argued that the regulation on BNPL should be "comprehensively reviewed" to require BNPL operators to conduct credit checks on their customers. He characterised BNPL operators as operating in "an unregulated space", while also agreeing that the responsible lending rules – as they applied to large banks – could also be rewritten.

“I don’t think it’s unreasonable given the size of the market, the scale of the individual players, in one instance being an ASX 20 company, to make an investment in understanding their customers’ circumstances and financial position,” he said.

Taking a further swing at his BNPL rivals, Comyn also suggested retailers should be allowed to pass on at least some of the BNPL players' surcharges, which he told the committee ranged between 3 per cent and 6 per cent.

While the questioning was not as intense as in previous years, committee chair Tim Wilson extracted an admission from Comyn that, "broadly" over the six months to December 2020 growth in small business lending has been "close to zero".

Turning to the outlook for his bank's ATM and branch network, Comyn said that, as at 31 December, the number of CBA branches – including BankWest –was 938, although would not be drawn on bank branch closures. Instead, he pointed to a deal with Australia Post that has expanded the bank's reach – via AustPost's network – by around 3500.

Comyn was unable to agree with Wilson on the exact number of ATMs in the CBA's fleet, but agreed it was around 3000, which he argued was "a substantial presence".