Do we like Commonwealth Bank?
Australia's biggest bank (CommBank): home loans, business banking, wealth and NZ banking. Based in Sydney, founded 1911.
Our score: 6 out of 10. Mixed. It's a big, well-run bank that has cleaned up on climate and scams, but it has a long record of fines for hurting customers, staff and the system.
CommBank dates from 1911 and is headquartered in Sydney. It's Australia's largest bank, with 18.6 million customers by its own count. Matt Comyn has run it since April 2018, and the board says it wants him to stay until at least 2028.
The big black mark is money laundering. AUSTRAC, the financial crime regulator, took CBA to court over 53,750 payments that broke the rules. CBA agreed to pay a record A$700 million. It's been a repeat offender in smaller ways too, such as a A$7m court penalty for overcharging business customers.
Staff haven't always been treated well. The Fair Work Ombudsman secured record penalties of A$10.34m against CBA and CommSec for underpaying workers by more than A$16m. In fairness, CBA self-reported, cooperated and back-paid staff. In December 2025 it also paid A$792k after the ACCC alleged data-sharing breaches. Paying that penalty isn't an admission.
On climate it has moved. Since 2024 it has required fossil fuel clients to have credible transition plans, and campaign group Market Forces says its oil and gas lending exposure has dropped 75% in three years. The same group still counts it as the second-biggest fossil fuel funder since Paris. On scams, the bank says it spent over A$1bn this year on fraud protection. That's why we land at a 6.