Commonwealth Bank CEO Ian Narev faces tough questions over his $12.3-million salary. Credit:Andrew Meares "No one has been terminated on the cases of rejecting terminally-ill claims," he said. On the day before the inquiry the Commonwealth Bank posted a short report on its response to the Comminsure scandal where it said it had looked at five million files but denied many of the claims accusations that surfaced in the scandal. Mr Narev and Mr Cohen were later asked about the case of Rainer Mathews, who had his request for hardship assistance rejected by the bank despite having to care for a terminally-ill wife and a new born child. When he applied a second time assistance was granted, but was eventually wound back in the final months of his wife's life. Asked whether the employee who rejected the application had suffered any disciplinary action, Mr Cohen replied: "No I am not.

Greens deputy leader Adam Bandt voted against excluding Senator Rhiannon from party room decisions: "I genuinely believe excluding people is not the right thing to do." Credit:Michael Clayton-Jones In his opening statement Mr Narev sought to tie the fortunes of his bank, to the banking sector at large and the wider economy. He admitted that the banks interest rate decision can appear "opaque" and "overly technical", but said it was in the nation's interest to have a strong banking sector. "Simply put, you cannot have a prosperous economy unless banks are strong. Through that time, we've also needed to balance the interests of many stakeholders in away that is fair and that is seen to be fair," he said. Labor's Matt Thistlethwaite said the inquiry would be a charade. Credit:Fiona Morris "We're often asked as we pursue this balance whether our levels of profit are too high...It is correct that our returns on equity are higher than many banks in other developed markets but in most of those markets, banks have failed, nearly failed or struggled severely."

Yesterday, Mr Narev admitted the bank "did not act with the requisite speed" after the life insurance scandal, where customers money was placed into high-risk investments, with allegation of signatures being forged and paperwork being doctored. The inquiry was later told of the 6000 cases reviewed only 890 received compensation. Illustration: Matt Golding I've got two days worth of questions that I want to ask the CEOs and, I'm going to get twenty minutes - it's completely farcical. Matt Thistlethwaite Mr Narev was forced to defend his decision not to sign a code of ethics, saying he didn't need to because he signed up to those values of when he took the top job. "I agree completely with the content [of the code]. I have the highest regard for the ethics centre...my view is that the day I took the job I signed up for that," he said.

After the commission, Labor's opposition financial services spokeswoman described the inquiry as a stitch up and said the party would continue to push for a royal commission "Banks chief executive Ian Narev had three hours, to put his responses, his side of the story, what we haven't had is any capacity for the victims, of the many thousands of victims to tell their story, to seek justice for what happened for them." Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced the committee hearings in August after the major bank's failed to pass on the Reserve Bank's 0.25 per cent rate cut to mortgage holders in full. Loading He said at the time the hearings would give the banks a chance to explain their actions directly to the Australian public.

"It's an opportunity for them to explain how they deal with their customers, explain why they make their interest rate decisions and in doing so, by being open and honest and accountable about it," he said at the time.