As the banking royal commission starts rolling out examples of bad behaviour, many of the bankers and their lawyers are working hard to make sure they are not on the wrong side of history.

“Every royal commission needs a Catholic Church and nobody wants to be the Catholic Church in a royal commission,” a source recently told Fairfax Media, referencing the devastating findings of the recent royal commission into institutional responses to child abuse.

Commonwealth Bank lost its bid to have its secrets not published by the royal commission. Credit:Glenn Hunt

(The same could be said for the Victorian bushfires royal commission – nobody wanted to be the electricity company whose faulty wires caused such devastation.)

“But there’s one bank that looks like it wants to be the Catholic Church,” the lawyer said.