Scandal-Plagued Australian Banks Face Their Day of Reckoning

  • Inquiry may recommend financial firms be broken up, pay curbed
  • Bribery, forgery, charging the dead among scandals uncovered
An inquiry into misconduct in Australia’s financial industry releases its final report Monday. Ed Johnson reports.(Source: Bloomberg)
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Australia’s scandal-plagued banks are set for their biggest upheaval in decades as a wide-ranging inquiry into misconduct recommends how the nation’s financial industry should atone for wrongdoings.

In its final report to be released in Canberra on Monday, the government-appointed Royal Commission could propose financial firms be broken up to avoid conflicts of interest, push for changes to pay and bonuses, tighten lending standards, urge tougher action from regulators, and even push for charges against banks and senior executives.