Labor says the banking royal commission should run longer than its current final reporting date of next February, and travel more widely, to give more aggrieved customers a chance to tell their stories.

The inquiry will present an interim report on Friday, and has a final reporting date of 1 February 2019, but the acting Labor leader, Tanya Plibersek, said on Thursday “if there is a case that the commission needs to extend the time it has available to speak to more people, to travel to more parts of Australia, then that option should be on the table”.

“Despite the fact there have been 9,000 submissions, only about 27 Australian customers had had the chance to tell their stories in person, so if there is an argument for more time and more scope for the royal commission, the government really ought to consider that,” Plibersek said.

The Morrison government is not anticipating a request from the commissioner, Kenneth Hayne, for an extension of time, but senior figures have signalled such a request would be granted if it was made.

The treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, told Guardian Australia earlier this month if Hayne asked for an extension of time, “I am positively disposed to that.”

Morrison said this week Hayne had conducted his inquiries “in an exemplary fashion” and he would grant an extension if one was requested. Asked if the interim report recommended criminal charges, would he make it a top priority to pursue that, the prime minister suggested that was unlikely in the interim report.

“I’m not going to prejudge what’s going to be in the report, and whether the royal commissioner is even proceeding to those types of recommendations at this stage I think is not clear,” the prime minister said.

“But certainly, having initiated this inquiry, we’d be seeking to act on the recommendations they make. At this stage I don’t know what’s in the report”.

The banking royal commission has a budget of $75m, and 54 personnel, including solicitors assisting and staff, who have reviewed more than 770,000 documents, including documents produced in response to notices, and submissions from parties and members of the public.

The inquiry has heard extraordinary accounts of misconduct across the financial services sector, including an admission by AMP that it had charged $1.3m in premiums for life insurance to more than 4,600 superannuation customers it knew had died.

An Australian insurance company sold life insurance to a young man with Down’s syndrome after calling him on the phone and extracting his debit card details.

The National Australia Bank and the Commonwealth Bank were also accused of possible criminal offences in a scathing summation of their evidence in late August.