Leif Gamertsfelder, Executive General Manager Advice Review program, said:

To date, the Open Advice Review program (OARp) has completed over 6,000 customer outcome letters and offered approximately $11 million in compensation, over $7.7 million of which has been paid to 571 customers. This brings the total the Commonwealth Bank has paid to customers to over $62 million under its past and present remediation programs.

We are confident that by the end of the year we will have the overwhelming majority of cases reviewed. It is important that we get the detail right; the average file has approximately 200 pages, with the largest having about 15,000 pages. 

The assessments continue to show that the large majority of our customers received advice that was appropriate for their circumstances at the time.

We’ve learnt that it is necessary to take the time to ensure a robust and consistent approach to case assessments. For those customers who have let us know they are in hardship, we have fast tracked their case assessments.

The Open Advice Review program was established to provide assurance that we have addressed issues about advice received between 2003-2012 in a thorough, consistent and transparent manner.