Commonwealth Bank, which has been undertaking a sweeping review of its business in the wake of a poor financial advice saga in Australia, has made further senior appointments to drive the process.

Commonwealth Bank, which has been undertaking a sweeping review of its business in the wake of a poor financial advice saga in Australia, has made further senior appointments to drive the process. (To see a previous story on the issue, click here.)

Two new members of the Independent Review Panel will join the chairman, retired Justice of the High Court of Australia, the Hon Ian Callinan.  The two new panel members are retired Justice of the Queensland Court of Appeal, Geoffrey Davies, as deputy chairman; and retired Justice of the Federal Court and the Victorian Court of Appeal, Julie Dodds-Streeton, as Panellist, the bank said in a statement at the weekend.

Davies is a former judge of the Queensland Court of Appeal. He was chairperson of the Litigation Reform Commission, served as commissioner of the Queensland Public Hospitals Commission of Inquiry and was a member of the Queensland Health Reform advisory panel.  Before his appointment to the Court, Mr Davies was a leading Senior Counsel and Solicitor-General for the State of Queensland.

Ms Dodds-Streeton served as a trial judge and Justice of Appeal of the Supreme Court of Victoria and subsequently as a Judge of the Federal Court until her retirement in April this year. In addition to distinguished service on the bench, she served more than 15 years on the Law Council’s Insolvency & Reconstruction Law Committee.

Fiona Guthrie has been appointed as a consultant expert advisor to the Independent Review Panel. Guthrie has had an extensive career as an advocate for consumers of financial services. Currently she is the executive director of Financial Counselling Australia and a member of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s Consumer Consultative Committee.

“We have worked closely with the Independent Review Panel Chairman, the Hon Ian Callinan AC, to identify high calibre Panel members. We are very pleased that Mr Davies and Ms Dodds-Streeton will join the Independent Review Panel and that Ms Guthrie will participate in the program as an expert advisor. The standing of these individuals should provide customers further reassurance that they will receive fair and impartial treatment under the Open Advice Review program,” Ian Narev, chief executive of the banking group, said in a statement about the appointments.

The appointments mean the bank can put finishing touches on its review programme, including naming independent customer advocates; the main role of these people is to support clients through the review and remediation process.  Commonwealth Bank said is in advanced discussions with a number of plaintiff law firms to provide this service at no cost to customers. Finalisation of the appointments is expected in coming weeks.

The bank said it has also appointed McGrathNicol as the programme’s Independent Forensic Expert. McGrathNicol is a leading independent Australian advisory firm with extensive experience in forensic investigation.

Commonwealth Bank's Open Advice Review programme is designed to deliver an efficient, fair and consistent outcome for any customer of Commonwealth Financial Planning or Financial Wisdom who may have received poor financial advice between 1 September 2003 and 1 July 2012.