Despite all those hours questioning the big four banks, the politicians still missed plenty as they went over the same ground with each chief executive and concentrated on individual headline issues rather than the big picture.

Most disappointing was the failure to pursue the financial planning industry's vertical integration. If they had chased that particular rabbit down its hole, they might have found a bigger scandal than some failed financial planners: the Great Funds Management Failure.

Never mind a relatively few dud financial planners, much of the $2 trillion industry is a fail with investors and superannuation funds set up to pay excessive, wealth-destroying fees for substandard performance.

Charging a high and fixed percentage of funds under management in a low-yield environment, regardless of absolute or relative performance, is a scandal. When, despite those fees, most active fund managers fail to even match their benchmark, it's a red hot scandal costing hundreds of millions of dollars.