Vulture City

The Banking Royal Commission presided over by Kenneth Hayne QC laid bare some of the most egregious acts of exploitation of vulnerable consumers ever seen before a public inquiry. It shocked average Australians and bewildered seasoned business commentators. Bankers, financial advisers and other intermediaries stood on the shoulders of children, the infirm, the indigenous, the elderly, the gambling addicted, the financially illiterate and walked over the dead to get their hands on the commissions and bonus payments to which they would assert they had a right because the system rewarded the selling of products over a sense of duty of care to customers. Did anyone at any point in a position of authority stop to think whether this was right? At what point did banks and other entities transform themselves into businesses that ended up sucking consumers dry rather than being a safe space for people to place funds? Investigative journalist Tom Ravlic has spent more than two decades looking at corporate governance, business and finance and the world of number crunching. He dissects case studies, explains what went wrong and explores possible solutions to the current trust deficit in Australia’s finance sector.