It’s harder to become a hairdresser in Australia than to qualify as a financial planner. Before you pick up a pair of scissors in a salon, you’ll need to complete a Certificate III, which is a 36-week course. You’re also required to train under a qualified professional. If you want to advise people about how to invest their life savings, the corporate regulator, ASIC, says an eight-week course (RG146) is all you need.

Don’t get me wrong, I put great stock in good grooming but people can recover from a bad haircut. Some Commonwealth Bank customers will never get over the experience of receiving bad financial advice.

Inaction: CBA chief executive Ian Narev admits nine staff members who were found to have engaged in ‘‘administrative breaches’’ are still employed at the bank. Credit:Fairfax

About 600 of the CBA’s 800 financial planners have the minimum qualification. The Financial Planning Association chairman, Matthew Rowe, wrote to the Commonwealth Bank a week ago suggesting that it consider better educating its advisers on how to approach their roles as ‘‘wealth managers’’, including ethics training. The FPA is keen to distinguish its planners from those who they consider unqualified to practice. Membership of the FPA is contingent on a planner completing an approved bachelor’s degree (economics, accounting or commerce) with a further one-year master’s equivalent diploma. Every year thereafter, a certified financial planner is required to undergo professional development.

The Senate Committee into the performance of ASIC and the CBA called for a royal commission to establish the extent and cause of the insidious cancer that spread through the CBA and saw members of its wealth management team fleece more than 1000 people of their hard-earned money. Nine of its recommendations centred on lifting standards in the financial advice industry.