It could take National Australia Bank a decade to embed the right culture that puts customers first, its chairman says.
Dr Ken Henry says the right culture for a financial services entity is one that is all about the customer.
The former Treasury secretary estimated it could take NAB 10 years to embed that culture.
"I hope not, but I wouldn't be at all surprised," Dr Henry told the banking royal commission.
"That would not be unusual for organisations that seek to embed challenge in cultures."
Dr Henry said a self-assessment the banks had to undertake did not throw up surprises.
"This is our distillation of problems that we realise we have been grappling with for quite a long time," he said.
Dr Henry said one of the principal cultural issues at NAB was an insufficient intensity of focus on getting it right all the time for customers.
He said the bank's systems often let it down and NAB did not always listen as closely to regulators as it should.
Dr Henry said under the strict letter of the law boards were accountable to their shareholders, but public tolerance for that model of accountability had been pretty well eroded to zero.
He said the misconduct raised at the royal commission showed the people who were most adversely affected were principally customers, not shareholders.
Dr Henry will finish his evidence to the commission on Tuesday, before AMP's acting CEO Mike Wilkins appears.
A fees-for-no-service scandal revealed at the inquiry in April led to the departure of AMP's CEO and chair, as barristers for the royal commission suggested Australia's largest wealth manager face criminal charges for lying to the corporate regulator.
Australian Associated Press
