"Dishonest" and "greedy".

That's how Kenneth Hayne, head of the banking royal commission, described Australia's banks in his scathing interim report released last week.

For the Commonwealth Bank, these are well-earned labels. It has charged more fees for no service than any other major bank, sold insurance to people that were unable to use it and charged fees to dead people.

And while all this has been happening, the Commonwealth Bank has continued to market its brand to kids through its Dollarmites program, one of the largest child-targeted marketing schemes in Australia.

Many Australians will remember the toys, money boxes and yellow plastic coin pouches that came home from school.

It all seems fairly harmless when cartoon aliens or friendly faced CGI characters with names such as "Addy" and "Spen" (and one recent character called "Cred" which mysteriously disappeared after comments by consumer advocates) encourage kids to save, but we know that's not what it's really about.

Commbank grooming kids for decades

Under the guise of education and community service, the Commonwealth Bank has been grooming successive generations of customers for decades.

Dishonesty, greed and blatant customer recruitment should have no place in Australia's classrooms.

Under a freedom of information request from the ABC, Queensland's Department of Education has released the details of the Dollarmite scheme in Queensland schools.

The report has exposed that the Commonwealth Bank pays schools $200 a year for taking part in the program.

In addition, schools are paid $100 for every 100 students who sign up for an account and $5 for every 10 deposits made by a student.

In 2017 almost $400,000 was paid out to public schools in the state.

A screenshot from the Commonwealth Bank's Dollarmites website. ( Supplied: Commonwealth Bank )

Pocket money is big business

Commonwealth Bank is promoting Dollarmites as a community service, but it's really about grabbing new customers.

This was made clear when the Dollarmite scheme was engulfed in scandal earlier this year, after it was revealed thousands of accounts were fraudulently opened by branch staff in order to meet sales targets and receive bonuses.

Despite senior management being alerted to this behaviour in February 2013, no disciplinary action was taken.

Pocket money is big business. With its unfettered access to kids through the Dollarmites scheme, the Commonwealth Bank dominates the first-account market.

Research from Choice shows that 46 per cent of people opened their first account with the Commonwealth Bank. This matters because more than one third (35 per cent) of people have not closed their first accounts.

The bank account you open first too frequently determines the bank you use for life.

CBA does not return loyalty

While the Commonwealth Bank benefits from the loyalty of its young first-account openers, it does not return this loyalty.

In fact, the Commonwealth Bank has been beset by scandals.

It presided over one of Australia's worst financial planning failures, leaving thousands of Australians with broken dreams and disappearing bank balances.

This includes deliberately and in some cases fraudulently putting people into risky and inappropriate investments to receive bonuses.

Meanwhile, from July 2007 to June 2015, financial advice clients were charged fees for advice that they did not receive, resulting in the Commonwealth Bank refunding $118.5 million.

Banks should fund logo-free financial literacy

Much of the royal commission's focus has been on how the banks measure up against community expectations, and from what we now know about Dollarmites it fails that test.

It is not acceptable to recruit customers in the schoolyard only to promote high-cost credit cards and loans to them when they become adults.

Commonwealth Bank CEO Matt Comyn must scrap the Dollarmites program.

If the big banks are serious about being part of a community and delivering an essential service, they should donate the money they spend marketing to children to programs that are independent of the bank.

Our children deserve financial literacy programs that don't come with a company logo.

Banks have a responsibility to the community. However, the royal commission has shown that they have failed this responsibility.

Consumed by greed, banks have placed profit before people.

We need to make dishonest and unfair behaviour unprofitable — including in our schools.

Alan Kirland is the CEO of consumer advocate Choice.