Commonwealth Bank response to A Current Affair

Our priority is to ensure Mr Murphy’s case is re-opened, fully investigated and resolved. It should be noted that Mr Murphy’s case was heard and rejected by the Financial Ombudsman Service. Notwithstanding, we are continuing to work with Mr Murphy to ensure that we reach a fair and appropriate outcome under the Open Advice Review program.

The Commonwealth Bank unreservedly apologises to any customer who did not receive appropriate advice from Commonwealth Financial Planning (CFP) or Financial Wisdom (FWL) between 2003 and 2012.

The Open Advice Review program, at no cost to customers, will provide an assessment of the advice received, access to an independent customer advocate and an independent review panel.  Customers can get more information and register their concerns by contacting us on 1800 507 281 or visiting www.commbank.com.au/openadvice.

The Commonwealth Bank, like any large organisation, does at times record calls for quality assurance and record keeping purposes. It is policy for Commonwealth Bank staff to inform customers when a phone call is being recorded.

In this instance, Mr Murphy’s case manager, with whom he has been working with for some months, was out of the office on annual leave, so to ensure accurate notes were taken to assist in resolving Mr Murphy’s complaints, recorded some of the calls.  Although this was done with the right intention, it is not standard practise and the case manager should have asked for Mr Murphy’s permission to record the call. We have apologised to Mr Murphy and have explained the unusual circumstances under which these recordings were made.

We strongly deny ACA’s allegation that the Commonwealth Bank offered an incentive to Mr Murphy to refrain from appearing on the show. This is purely fanciful.