Something rather important has been missed amid the outrage and sensationalism over the Commonwealth Bank money laundering scandal: as the system stands, successful money laundering and terrorism funding is inevitable.

The fever-pitch of hysteria was reached by The Australian newspaper's Bob Gottliebsen writing "the fate of the Australian sharemarket" rests on the shoulders of the CBA chairman, that if the CBA makes statements later proved to be false "then there is grave risk that the fines could wipe out the shareholders' funds of Australia's largest company" and the bank would return to government ownership.

And a North Korean nuke could land on Martin Place tomorrow. Or perhaps not.

While scorn has poured down on the latest CBA failure, the focus has been on a relative skirmish and ignored the insight it provides into the war. The reality is that regulators are relying on banks with disparate systems to do their legwork while forever playing catch-up with the more organised criminals.