Unsurprisingly, new polling out today shows that public trust in both the major banks and the ability of their boards to put members’ interests first remains low, following recent financial advice scandals.

A majority also believe the banks’ for-profit super funds and their boards are overly focused on making a profit from customers’ retirement savings. 

The UMR survey of 1000 people conducted last month found that:

·   71% agreed that scandals over poor financial advice from the big banks show that the banks’ boards are not working effectively.

·   65% said bank-owned super funds were too focused on squeezing as much money as possible out of their customers.

"This survey captures the extent of the mistrust of the major banks, in part because of the ongoing financial advice scandals.

“Over the last decade, the big banks have had to pay millions of dollars to customers in refunds, compensation or settlements and have been the subject of investigations and other enforcement action by the regulator and police,” said David Whiteley, Chief Executive of Industry Super Australia.

Despite this, the banks and the bank-owned super funds have embarked on a campaign to reduce consumer protections and gain market share.

They have lobbied to remove consumer protection for people that need financial advice, lobbied to change the character and structure of their better performing competitors, industry super funds, and lobbied to remove consumer protections for people that rely on their employer super default arrangements.

“I think the community at large doesn't have a high level of trust in the banks, particularly people over 30. If Australians formed a view that government proposals intentionally or unintentionally benefitted the banks, at the expense of consumers, that could be of concern to them."