Environmental and social

We are committed to enabling our customers to access our products and services with dignity and ease, regardless of their background, abilities or circumstances.

2024-2026 Accessibility and Inclusion Strategy (PDF)

Our commitment to inclusion and diversity is an integral part of our culture, values and the way we do business. It offers tangible benefits for our employees, customers and shareholders.

Group Inclusion and Diversity Policy (PDF)

We are determined to build sustainable practices into every aspect of our business and we recognise the importance of managing our supply chain.

Supplier Code of Conduct (PDF)

We have a workplace health and safety policy that outlines our ongoing commitment to the health, safety and wellbeing of all of our people, contractors and customers.

Workplace health and safety policy (PDF)

Reconciliation

We recognise that many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians face significant social and financial disadvantage.  So while we aim to promote equality for all Australians, reconciliation is an important part or our investment in our community.


FY23-25 RAP corrections

During a recent review on progress towards implementing our FY23-25 Reconciliation Action Plan, CommBank identified three statements requiring corrections, due to changes in internal processes or because they require clarification to better reflect our practices. The review did not include a re-review as to the accuracy of all other statements in the FY23-25 Reconciliation Action Plan. This will be carried out in 2025 prior to the publication of the FY26-28 Reconciliation Action Plan. The following table outlines the new text and the previous text and the reasons for the changes.

The corrections have been made in consultation with Reconciliation Australia.

Page
New text
Previous text
Reason for change
12
Through our Environment and Social Framework, we expect our Clients, Suppliers and other business partners to identify, manage, monitor, and redress any adverse impacts on human rights where their business is involved. To support this, Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) risk assessments are required for institutional corporate lending, Business Banking and Commonwealth Private Bank customers with current or proposed commercial or corporate lending greater than or equal to $1.5 million.1 These assessments are performed in one of two ways:
  • The Corporate and Institutional Pathway is used to assess larger Business Banking customers managed in the Major Client Group and Regional and Agribusiness Specialised Agribusiness Solutions segments, and all Institutional corporate lending.
  • The Commercial Pathway is used to assess business banking customers managed in the Commercial Banking, Regional and Agribusiness Banking, Small Business Banking segments, customers in transition from Bankwest Business Bank, as well as customers managed in Commonwealth Private Bank.
The tool is supported by a set of inherent risk ratings across industry ANZSIC codes for ten key focus areas including: climate and energy; climate physical risk; water; pollution; biodiversity; human rights; Indigenous rights; labour rights and modern slavery; workplace health and safety; and anti-corruption and governance. The tool also includes specific questions aimed at assessing whether lending to a customer is aligned to commitments in the E&S Framework.

1
Please note, from March 2023, the threshold for completing ESG risk assessments in Business Banking was updated from $1 million to $1.5 million. This may be subject to further change. Since that time, ESG risk assessments have been required as described in the new text above.
Through our Environment and Social Framework, we expect our Clients, Suppliers and other business partners to identify, manage, monitor, and redress any adverse impacts on human rights where their business is involved. To support this outcome, we perform Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) risk assessments on institutional corporate lending and business customers with proposed corporate lending greater than $1 million.   These assessments are performed in one of two ways:
  • The Corporate and Institutional Pathway (business corporate lending greater than $30 million and institutional corporate lending).
  • The Commercial Pathway (business corporate lending between $1 million and $30 million).
The ESG risk assessment tool is supported by a dataset of initial risk ratings across key focus areas, including climate and energy; climate physical risk; water; pollution; biodiversity; human rights; labour rights and modern slavery; workplace health and safety; and anti-corruption and governance. The ESG risk assessment tool is integrated into the Bank’s corporate loan pricing system to embed it as part of the corporate lending decision process. 
Since we released our RAP in October 2022, changes have been made to our Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Risk Assessment process.
16
Over the last three years, we have increased the unique completion rate of cultural capability from 8 per cent during FY20, to 56 per cent during FY22.
Over the last three years, we have increased the unique completion rate of cultural capability from 8.4 per cent during FY20, to over 62 per cent during FY22.
To determine our training completion rate for Indigenous cultural development, we use Australian Headcount as the denominator. In our 2024 Annual Report, we restated all prior periods to exclude other overseas and service providers from the training completion data to align with this reporting criteria.
23
Review relevant international standards related to the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and embed within our Supplier Code of Conduct.
Review relevant international standards related to the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and embed within our Supplier Code of Conduct and procurement practices.
We have a current commitment to review relevant international standards related to the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and embed within our Supplier Code of Conduct and procurement practices. 

We have reviewed relevant international standards related to the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Our refreshed SCOC will be published in FY25 and will include an expectation that our suppliers, domestically and globally, respect the rights of Indigenous people. We do not believe embedding this aspect of the SCOC into our procurement practices will lead to meaningful outcomes. We will continue to focus on strengthening our supplier diversity program.

Governance

We are committed to embedding a zero appetite culture towards bribery, corruption and facilitation payments across all areas and levels of the business.

More about anti-bribery and corruption

Our Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing program sets out how the Group identifies, mitigates and manages money laundering and terrorism financing risk.

More about anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing

We are committed to embedding a zero appetite culture towards the facilitation of tax evasion. Our Anti-Tax Evasion Facilitation Policy prohibits the facilitation of tax evasion and applies to all employees, directors and contractors of the bank. The principles outlined in our Policy also apply to third parties acting or performing services for or on behalf of the Group.

More about anti-tax evasion facilitation

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is developing rapidly. Appropriate use of AI will help us to achieve our purpose of building a brighter future for all. 

We have developed a principles based approach to the governance and compliance of artificial intelligence in the design, development, deployment and use of AI systems by the Bank.

Our approach to AI

The Banking Code of Practice (the Code) sets out the standards of practice and service in the Australian banking industry for individual and small business customers and their guarantors.

Banking Code of Practice

This Code sets out expectations for how we act, solve problems and make decisions. Our Code of Conduct is the ultimate guide for how we do things at Commonwealth Bank. It describes the standards of conduct we expect. The Code connects our Purpose, Values Expectations (with a ‘Should We?’ test) and key Group Policies to help us to deliver the right outcomes for all our stakeholders.

Code of Conduct (PDF)

Our complaint handling principles apply to the Commonwealth Bank, its employees and its representatives when responding to customer complaints in Australia.

See our complaint handling principles

The Commonwealth Bank Group is committed to ensuring its policies and practices reflect the highest standard of corporate governance. The Board has adopted a comprehensive framework of corporate governance guidelines, designed to properly balance performance and compliance.

Corporate governance statement

Commonwealth Bank group has committed to a new global standard aimed at reducing tax evasion by sharing information about foreign tax residents with in Australia. This requires us to collect tax residency information from our customers.

More about customer tax information

Our Group-wide economics and trade sanctions policy acts as the basis for the development of appropriate internal procedures. We are committed to ensuring employees understand the importance of sanctions compliance.

Economic and Trade Sanctions Policy

As a CommBank account holder you may be protected by the Australian Governments guarantee of deposits. The guarantee is per account holder and has a cap of AUD$250,000 per account holder. For further information please refer to the APRA website at or call the APRA hotline on 1300 55 88 49.

Learn more about our financial claims scheme

Our fraud policy defines the Group’s fraud control principles, mandatory requirements and accountabilities. It clearly articulates that the Group does not tolerate fraud and is committed to promoting and maintaining a sound ethical culture.

Group fraud policy

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (‘CBA’) operates globally through a number of CBA offices to engage in price quoting, order taking, transaction execution and other market making and risk management activities across the wholesale fixed income, currency and commodity (‘FICC’) markets.

Institutional Banking and Markets (IB&M) is responsible for managing the Group's relationships with large corporate, government and institutional clients and provides a full range of capital raising, transactional and risk management products and services to IB&M clients.

The disclosures in this section convey the steps CBA will take in managing this process and providing positive customer outcomes.

FX Cost of Service Client  Disclosure (PDF)

FX Order Execution and Handling Client Disclosure (PDF)

Global Markets and Commodities, Trade & Carbon Sales and Trading Practices for Wholesale Markets Disclosure (PDF)

Market Soundings and Investor Roadshows Guidelines Summary

LIBOR Disclosure

Conflicts of Interest (PDF)

Capital Markets Allocation Policy Summary (PDF)

CBA FX Liquidity Provider Disclosure Cover Sheet

Statement of commitment to the FX Global Code

Financial Markets Standards Board (FMSB) Annual Statement of Commitment

This information security statement provides a broad overview of the controls and capabilities adopted by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) and Bankwest (together, the ‘Group’ for purposes of this statement) in managing information security risk across those businesses.

Information Security Statement (PDF)

Our model litigant principles set out our commitment to managing disputes and litigation with our retail and small business customers in a fair, timely and transparent way.

See our model litigant principles

Our Policy precludes the Group from making political donations. We may pay to attend events hosted by political parties with a business audience. We may be required to disclose such payments under relevant electoral laws.

Our Privacy Policy and how we protect your personal information.

See our Privacy Policy

Our remuneration principles have been designed to support a remuneration approach that aligns with our vision, values and strategy, is appropriate to changing market conditions, and seek to comply with regulatory requirements.

Remuneration Principles (PDF)

As the holder of an Australian credit licence, CBA has strict obligations relating to the provision of credit to customers.  These include responsible lending obligations, which aim to encourage prudent lending and minimise the risk that consumers will not be able to make their loan repayments.  The regulatory framework includes legislation -the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 (Cth) (the NCCP Act) - as well as related Regulations, Codes and regulatory guidance provided by the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC).

Responsible lending (PDF)

As part of our purpose to build a brighter future for all, we aim to provide balanced outcomes for our stakeholders. Engaging with our stakeholders meaningfully helps us understand their needs and expectations, allowing us to respond in a way that considers their different views.

Stakeholder Engagement Approach (PDF)

Our Supplier Code of Conduct shares the Group's principles and communicates the behaviour and business practices we expect our suppliers to adhere to - including throughout Suppliers' own supply chains. These behaviours and practices include meeting social and environmental standards, as well as satisfying governance and compliance obligations.

Supplier-Code-of-Conduct (PDF)

As one of the largest corporate taxpayers in Australia, we are committed to being a responsible corporate taxpayer and acting with the highest integrity in complying with all prevailing tax laws.

Tax transparency code (PDF)

UK Tax Strategy (PDF)

We are committed to embedding a ‘speak up’ culture. Our Group whistleblower policy and procedures prescribe that reports are treated appropriately and the employee raising the concern is protected.

More about our SpeakUP program