Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

[Presentation] Good morning, shareholders. My name is Helen Daley, and I'm your MC for today's Annual General Meeting of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. My role is to help shareholders understand how the meeting will work, including how shareholders can vote and how shareholders can ask questions. I would like to begin by acknowledging the traditional custodians of the land on which we meet today, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, and pay our respects to their elders past and present. I extend that respect to Abeta Torres Trade Islander persons here today and on the webcast. We're hosting this year's meeting in person at the Hyatt Regency in Sydney. We welcome shareholders to the grand ballroom, and we also welcome those watching via webcast online. Your safety is a high priority for the bank. So I'll briefly outline the venue's safety procedures. If an emergency occurs, the chair may need to adjourn the meeting and ask everyone to walk towards the exit signs. If that happens, please follow all directions from the Hyatt Regency staff and the security team and listen for further instructions via the public address system. We ask that you now please switch off your mobile phone or put it on silent during the meeting. In addition, please don't take photographs or film or record the meeting. Before I hand over to your chair to formally open the meeting, I will briefly outline the processes that will help shareholders to participate. Thank you to those shareholders who have submitted questions prior to the meeting. We've sought to address many of the things in the questions throughout the remarks that will be made by the Chair and the CEO in their formal addresses to this meeting. In a few moments, I'll address how to submit questions for those viewing online. But first, I'll deal with asking questions and voting for those who are attending in person. And we're thrilled to see so many of you attending in person. Now when registering your attendance today, you would have received a colored card. You need your card to ask a question or to reenter the meeting room. Yellow cards after shareholders and proxy holders who may speak and vote. Blue cards are for shareholders who may speak but not vote as they have already lodged a vote or they're a joint holder. If you are a shareholder and proxy holder and have 2 yellow cards, it is important that you complete both yellow voting cards, 1 in your own right and the second as a proxy for your nominating shareholder. All other persons holding red or green cards are welcome to attend but may not address the meeting or vote. Before voting, the chair will introduce each 8 business separately and then invite questions. For those here today, the Chair will ask shareholders and proxy holders who wish to speak to move to the closest microphone located in the room. Please show your yellow or blue card and provide your full name to the microphone attendant who will introduce you to the meeting. If you are not here in your own personal capacity, please also identify the shareholder you are representing to the microphone attendant. Questions should be confined to the business of the meeting. Questions about individual banking or personal shareholding matters will not be put to the meeting. If you have an individual banking or customer question, please speak with representatives from our group customer relations and customer advocate teams who will be available after the meeting in the foyer just outside this room. To the extent you are able, if your question relates to a particular item of business, please ask your question when we come to that item. I'd also ask that you are respectful of others during the meeting so that we can have a constructive discussion on all matters. [Operator Instructions] It's my great pleasure to now introduce your chair, Paul O'Malley.

Good morning, and thank you, Helen, for welcoming everyone here in the room and online and acknowledging the traditional custodians of the land. Thank you all for attending today. I'm pleased to welcome you to our 2026 Annual General Meeting. I'm informed that we have a quorum present, and I declare the 2026 Annual General Meeting of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia open. A notice of meeting has been distributed, and I'll take it as read. I would now like to introduce your Board, the Chief Financial Officer and the Group Company Secretary. From my far left, Alistair Cury; Julie Galbo, Jane McAloon, AM; Lyn Cobley, AM; Alan Docety, our Chief Financial Officer; and Matt Colman, our Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director. And from my far right, Peter Harmer, Chair of the Audit Committee; Kate Howard; Rob Whitfield AM, the Chair of the Risk and Compliance Committee; Julie Coates, Simon Moutter, Chair of the People and Remuneration Committee; and Vicki Clarkson, our Group Company Secretary. Also with us today are the other members of the bank's executive leadership team. Elizabeth O'Brien, the lead audit partner for our external audit at PwC is also in attendance today. Elizabeth was the lead audit partner for the external audit of the financial statements for the financial year ended 30 June 2026 and is available to respond to any specific questions you may have in relation to this audit. The 12 months since our last AGM have been marked by heightened uncertainty. Global geopolitical tensions have intensified, technology is moving rapidly and expectations from customers, communities and regulators continue to rise. Many Australians are feeling cautious and continue to make careful decisions about how they spend, save and manage their money. Our purpose, building a brighter future for all, is increasingly relevant in uncertain times. It reflects our commitment to Australia, and guides how we support our customers, engage with our communities, strengthen the nation and provide sustainable returns for our shareholders. Our strategy, Building Tomorrow's Bank Today For Our Customers, focuses on deepening customer relationships, delivering better and more consistent experiences continuing to invest in technology and capability and maintaining strong risk discipline. Disciplined execution of our strategy remains key to delivering long-term value for all shareholders -- for all stakeholders, especially our shareholders. At the heart of the bank's strategy is growing our share in retail and business banking. Productivity, wages and living standards depend on sustained investment in productive capacity. This is why we are intentionally growing lending to Australian businesses to support Australia's economic growth that underpins our standard of living. This year, the Board has spent considerable time examining the opportunities and risks associated with artificial intelligence. We see AI as having the potential to help improve customer experiences, strengthen productivity and enhance the bank's ability to manage risks such as fraud and scams. At the same time, we recognize the importance of strong governance and responsible adoption. Our CEO, Matt Common, will say more about how CBA is using AI across the organization. Cost of living pressures and higher interest rates continued to affect households unevenly, while businesses are managing elevated input costs and supply uncertainty. Matt will elaborate on how we're supporting customers through these ongoing challenges. We have the largest branch and ATM network in Australia and more than 16,000 of our people serve our customers directly every single day. Earlier this month, we keep -- we committed to keeping all 281 of our regional branches open until at least the end of 2030. We're also investing $140 million this year to upgrade our branch network. As more customers choose digital banking, branches remain important for people and businesses when they need more complex support or value a local relationship. Improving financial inclusion for First Nations customers remains a priority. Alongside our branch teams and our indigenous customer assistance line our First Nation's Reach program expands access to essential banking services and builds financial capability through community visits. Since March of we have supported more than 5,200 customers across 29 locations covering 38 communities. One of our most important responsibilities is helping customers stay safe. Economic crime continues to impose real costs on households, businesses and trust in digital systems. The Board has maintained its focus on the bank's investment in helping to protect customers and communities, recognizing these threats evolve alongside technology. We support a system-wide approach to economic crime with government, telecommunications, digital platforms and financial institutions taking coordinated action to help reduce harm. This year, we have invested more than $1 billion to help protect customers from fraud, scams, cyber threats and financial crime. Matt will speak more about this. CBA's cash net profit after tax was $11 billion, an increase of 7% from the previous year. The final dividend was $2.70 per share, delivering a total FY '26 dividend per share of $5.05 fully franked. We returned $8.3 billion to shareholders, benefiting more than 14 million Australians who own CBA shares directly or through their super funds. The Board sees the bank's balance sheet strength as both a strategic asset and the resilience mechanism. Balance sheet strength is essential to maintaining confidence funding the economy and supporting customers when conditions deteriorate. We remain focused on preserving strength across capital, liquidity and long-term funding and provisioning, recognizing that resilience must be built before it is actually needed. Delivering returns above the cost of capital is essential. This is what allows us to keep lending, be there for our customers, invest in our franchise and pay a sustainable dividend. Affordable, reliable and secure energy including through the transition to net 0 is critical to underpin economic prosperity. As the bank for all Australians, we remain committed to supporting our customers and communities through the period of significant structural change. The Australian Energy Market Operator, AEMO, identifies that renewable energy connected by transmission and distribution firmed with storage and backed up by gas presents the least cost way to supply secure and reliable electricity to consumers as coal plants retire and while meeting government policies. AEMO also forecast gas shortfalls in the coming years, and the Australian government has announced its intention to establish a domestic gas reservation scheme which will seek to deliver energy security and stable natural gas prices. Delivering a more secure, reliable and affordable energy system will require sustained investment at scale particularly in generation, storage, and enabling infrastructure. Our environmental and social framework recognizes Australia's need for a secure energy platform. We continue to make progress against our commitment to support Australia's transition to net 0 by 2050. We remain on track for 12 of our 15 sector level financed emissions, goals and targets. Having achieved our 2025 operational emissions targets, we set a new 2030 target to reduce our Scope 1 and 2 operational emissions by 75% against the 2020 baseline. We've also observed growing focus on nature-related risks. We recognize the importance of Australia taking action to maintain, restore and enhance nature and biodiversity. Our approach to nature is informed by our experience managing climate-related risks, being methodical and deliberate, building our understanding from evidence and working with relevant customers as expectations and external requirements evolve. Since 2023, we have progressively enhanced our understanding of nature-related risks. Our initial analysis identified agriculture as a priority sector and we have since continued to build our geospatial capabilities and strengthen our risk assessment processes. Agriculture is fundamental to Australia's economy, our regions and our national prosperity. Farmers have stewarded the land in Australia for over a century and are responding to a changing operating environment, including rising input costs, and changing market expectations while navigating state, territory and federal regulations. Many farmers have long adapted their practices to improve productivity, manage costs and strengthen resilience, including by investing in their natural assets. This can include native revegetation, tree planting and improving the management of soils and waterways. Some shareholders have called for a pathway to deforestation-free finance. Forest loss can have impacts on nature, but not every instance of land clearing is the same and evidence of clearing on a property doesn't by itself tell you what the appropriate banking response should be. Governments and regulators set and enforce the law. Our role is to understand the issue, consider relevant risks through our established processes and make careful decisions about customer relationships. We have made progress this year, including completing an initial portfolio level analysis, a potential forest loss in our Business Bank agribusiness portfolio, making targeted updates to our risk assessment process and providing additional banker training, ongoing monitoring of relevant external developments and continued learning from our analytical work will inform whether changes to our current approaches are appropriate. Effective governance, a strong risk culture and clear accountability helped the bank to deliver good risk outcomes and to maintain trust. The Board has continued to oversee the bank's management of financial, nonfinancial and strategic risks supported by the Risk and Compliance and Audit Committees. The risk culture support the right risk culture supports innovation and supports our ambition to exceed customers' expectations. Sustaining it requires persistent focus and the commitment to preserving the corporate memory of the Prudential Inquiry. Risk culture measures during the year showed continued progress while also highlighting areas for further improvement. Our annual risk management declaration to the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority assists the board in identifying the material risks when we need to strengthen our approach. Areas of focus include cybersecurity, operational resilience, fraud and scams and financial crime compliance. Technology, including AI and is central to the group's strategy, and we take the responsible use of AI seriously. Risks associated with AI are managed by our existing risk management framework and our group AI policy and standard and are supported by 6 responsible AI principles. Gen AI guardrails have also been developed to help manage key risks. Succession planning remains a focus so that the bank has the right executives in the right roles, leading with the right behaviors and values to deliver our strategy and enhance franchise value. With the support of the People and Remuneration Committee, we thoroughly review executive performance, tenure and succession plans. Turning now to the Board. Current independent nonexecutive directors, Simon Moutter and Rob Whitfield AM, are standing for reelection with the support of the Board. Simon will stand for a 3-year term and Rob for a 1-year term, in line with our Board appointment renewal and performance policy. We consider it appropriate to extend Mr. Whitfield's tenure beyond 9 years given his banking, finance and risk expertise and his leadership as Chair of the Risk and Compliance Committee. Julie Coates will today stand for election as an independent nonexecutive director with the support of the Board. Julie joined the Board at the start of September. She is a Non-Executive Director of Wesfarmers Limited and Center Group Limited and has a breadth of experience in the retail, consumer goods, construction, manufacturing and building products sectors. To be effective, your Board needs to understand how the operating environment is shifting and its implications for the bank business model. Directors need diverse skills and experience to apply considered judgment. They are required to keep learning, use values to balance stakeholder perspectives and participate in respectful but rigorous debates. Stewardship requires directors to be clear on trade-offs, disciplined on capital and to never lose sight of the people and communities impacted by our decisions. The Board takes seriously its responsibility to oversee sound long-term decision-making for the bank, supporting strong outcomes for our customers and shareholders and helping to build a resilient banking system for all Australians. By helping our organization prosper through uncertain times, we can be there for our customers when they need us most and contribute to the resilience of the Australian economy. I sincerely thank my fellow directors for their care and diligence, Matt and the executive leadership team and our people for their hard work and for our customers for choosing to bank with us. I extend my appreciation to you, our shareholders, for your long-term support of CBA. I now invite our Managing Director and CEO, Matt Common to address the meeting.

Thank you, Paul, and good morning, everyone. This year, we stayed focused on supporting our customers, helping protect communities and investing in Australia. We know 2026 has been a challenging year for many Australians. The impact of higher interest rates and cost of living pressures has not been shared evenly and for some households, it has become harder, not easier, as the year has gone on. Whether our customers are managing their personal finances, running a business or both, we are here to support them if they need it. This year, we activated emergency assistance for customers impacted by severe weather. And in the last financial year, we established 147,000 payment arrangements for customers experiencing financial difficulty. Being able to support customers when it matters, starts with knowing them well. 1 in 3 Australians and 1 in 4 Australian businesses call us their main financial institution. That trust is what allows us to keep lending and supporting our customers. Last financial year, we provided $50 billion of new lending to businesses, supporting investment, growth, productive capacity and employment across the economy. We helped our customers buy more than 150,000 homes and provided $17 billion in finance for new housing supply. A continuing focus for us has been getting closer to our customers and better understanding what matters most to them at key moments in their lives. Over the year, we saw improvements in our retail and business customer journeys, helping us address customer pain points and improve our end-to-end experiences. Our focus on delivering consistent customer experiences supported us in maintaining our #1 position among major banks in the consumer Net Promoter Score, or NPS, a position we've held for almost 4 years. In September, we also maintained our #1 position among the majors in business and institutional NPS. And while our results are encouraging, there is still more work to do. Our customer focus and the consistent execution of our strategy are reflected in our results for the 2026 financial year. We grew at or above system in all 5 core product categories, home lending, business lending, consumer finance, household deposits and business deposits. This is the first time any major Australian bank has done this in the past 15 years. Importantly, it was not achieved by sacrificing margin. Cash net profit after tax increased by 7% to $11 billion, Cash earnings per share increased by $0.44. This allowed the Board to declare a fully franked dividend of $2.70 taking the full year dividend to $5.05 per share. The strength of our franchise and prudent settings enable us to support customers, invest in our business and deliver sustainable shareholder returns. Nowhere is that investment more important than in helping to keep our customers safe. As Paul mentioned, economic crime continues to impose real costs on our customers and the community. Threats continue to evolve quickly, increasing their potential to harm our customers and communities, and we recognize there is always more to do. Last year, we invested more than $1 billion to help protect customers from fraud, scans, cyber threats and financial crime. And every day, we send around 40,000 proactive warning alerts via the CommBank app. Since September 2024, we've provided customers with 5.9 million notifications via Intelligent Warnings for first-time payments. And while AI is making scams more sophisticated, it is also an increasingly important part of how we detect harmful and suspicious activity. We're using human-sounding AI bots to engage and help disrupt scanners in real-time. These bots have held more than 350,000 conversations via calls or messaging since August 2025. From helping protect customers to serving them, technology, including AI, is central to our strategy of Building Tomorrow's Bank Today For Our Customers. We believe AI could be the most significant technology shift we have seen. It presents an opportunity to improve productivity, strengthen services and help make Australia more capable and Australians more prosperous. As customers increasingly use AI to search, compare, decide and transact, we believe the value of a trusted primary relationship will continue to increase. This year, we began a phased rollout of CommBank Companion to a select group of customers. Companion is an AI-powered conversational experience with the CommBank app that provides information about our customers' personal and business finances. In Business Banking, Banker Workbench is in an AI-enabled workspace that brings together data tasks and insights, so bankers can spend more time with our customers. Central to how we use AI is being able to use it safely, reflecting our focus on responsible AI, leadership and talent development, we were ranked #1 in -- the #1 bank in Asia Pacific and #4 globally for AI maturity in the 2026 Evident AI index. Realizing the AI opportunity will require regulation to keep pace. An effective regulation should help build trust in AI while ensuring global technology companies operate in accordance with Australian laws and standards and that as much of the economic value that is created is then captured in Australia. Building a brighter future for all also means investing in our communities. One way we do this is through our Next Chapter Program, our long-term commitment to help address domestic and family violence and financial abuse in Australia. Our Next Chapter team continues to provide free and confidential support to victim survivors no matter who they bank with. And this year, the team provided support through over 19,300 individual interactions. Another way is through our annual community grants. And this year, 180 community organizations across Australia were recognized each receiving a grant of $20,000. And 6 of these grant recipients were voted by our people to receive an additional $80,000 to amplify their impact in the community. Football is Australia's largest grassroot sport and we're now its largest supporter in Australian history. CBA has been proud naming rights partner of the CommBank Matildas since 2021. And this year, we expanded our partnership with Football Australia to support all Australians to play regardless of age, gender, ability or location. We know that providing exceptional experiences for our 18.6 million customers is only possible through a skilled and dedicated workforce that reflects our customers and our communities. I'm deeply grateful to work alongside them, and I thank them for their dedication. People engagement remains high at 85%, up from 84% in September 2025. This is the highest level recorded under the current methodology. The combination of understanding our customers and deepening engagement with our people means we can support customers through challenging periods and continue to deliver sustainable returns for our owners. We're also helping our employees build skills for the future. This year, we announced a 3-year $90 million program to help our teams build skills and capabilities as technology reshapes the way we work and the way we serve our customers. Some tasks will change, some roles will evolve and new roles will continue to emerge. We want to be transparent with our people about that and to help them prepare early. Looking ahead, growth is slowing across the economy and inflation remains too high. And it will take time for higher interest rates to bring inflation back into the target range. We also expect more frequent and more volatile international shocks, which Australia has little control over. That makes productivity more important than ever, building more homes, delivering reliable, low-cost energy at scale and adopting technology, including AI, across the economy will all be critical. Notwithstanding that, the economy remains resilient, and we should be optimistic about Australia's long-term potential. Despite a demanding environment, we enter the 2027 financial year from a position of strength with a clear focus on execution and continuing to support our customers. Our purpose, building a brighter future for all reflects our commitment to Australia. As we look to the year ahead, we'll stay focused on investing in our business and executing our strategy to bring our purpose to life. I'd like to thank our customers, our people, our shareholders for your ongoing support of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. Thank you.

Thank you, Matt. As Chair of the meeting, I formally declare the poll on all resolutions open and that the poll will close 15 minutes after the meeting closes. You may now vote on all resolutions. MUFG Corporate Markets is the returning officer for this meeting with responsibility for overseeing the voting process. There are 5 items of business to be considered today. These are: number one, consideration of financial statements and reports; two, the reelection and election of directors; three, the adoption of the 2026 remuneration report for the grant of securities to the CEO, Matt Comyn; and five, resolutions requisitioned by a group of shareholders. The voting exclusions for Item 3 and 4 are set out in the notice of meeting. where undirected proxies have been given or default to the chair of the meeting, they will be voted in favor of items 2 to 4 inclusive and against Item 5. We will now move to the first line item of business, which is receive and consider the financial report, the sustainability report, the director's report and the auditor's report of the company for the financial year ended 30 June 2026. While there is no resolution for this item, there is an opportunity for shareholders to ask questions on the reports, management of the company and on the audits. I understand that some shareholders may wish to ask questions in relation to Item 5. When we reached this item, a representative from the requisitioning shareholders, will address the meeting to share some remarks. I ask that to the extent possible you hold your questions in relation to item 5 until after these remarks. I now invite shareholders and proxy holders in the room who wish to ask questions or make comments on Item 1 to move to a microphone. As a reminder, please show your yellow or blue card and provide your full name to the microphone attendant who will introduce you to the meeting. I also invite shareholders and proxy holders to submit questions online. Are there any questions?

Chair, I would like to introduce Mr. Paul Blackmore.

Welcome, Mr. Blackmore and good to see you again.

Good to see you as well. Paul Blackmore from the Finance Sector Union. We represent CBA workers across Australia. Firstly, congratulations on the record profit. What I do want to ask is, despite this record profit, we've still got a situation where your employees remain concerned about their ongoing job security. We recognize the investment you've made in your future workforce program, which is detailed in your annual report and the associated platforms that are designed to assist with reskilling and support impacted employees. But like I said, job security remains a true concern for your employees. And already this year, we've seen about 1,000 jobs cut Australian-based employees here at CBA. So I'll cut to the question, what assurances can CBA give to its staff that their jobs are secure and they won't be next on the chopping block.

Thanks very much for your question and for your engagement. And I do note that there has been constructive conversations with your and your representatives about the CBA. So that is positive. We have a really important role in Australia at the CBA and that's to support the nation and its businesses and the communities and whether that's from lending money or cybersecurity through our technology platforms supporting communities through our branch networks, our ATM and we've given the comment about maintaining our regional branches through to 2030. None of that we can do without capable, committed and skilled employees and the Commonwealth Bank is incredibly fortunate to have almost 50,000 employees and 35,000 in Australia, who commit to supporting the bank and its customers and all its stakeholders every single day. So we are fortunate that we have such capable and committed employees as a Board, making sure that we focus on supporting our employees to do the right thing for themselves and the bank. And you mentioned the workforce program. We have to invest in our people as the world changes. Technology is evolving rapidly. I'm sure there will be many questions on -- but AI as a skill that I'm sure many people in this room and online use is changing and complementing the way that we can work. The skills that we need to do that do require investment. And as a bank, I think we're leading in the way that we are working out the skills matrix that our employees have, helping share with them and understand the skills that they have, giving them the opportunity to expand those skills to have more opportunity, whether it's within the bank or whether they choose to go elsewhere. We have to support Australia proceed into what is quite a changing world. In terms of the specific questions of commitments, our commitment is to our employees and to give them the best opportunity to have the best personal future that they can have. And to the extent that that's with the CBA, that's great. if it's elsewhere, we want them to be successful elsewhere as well. There's no ability to give a blanket commitment to any individual or to the nation -- we are seeing competition today come from tech firms outside of Australia who are deploying AI and taking Australian businesses out of the chain and directly engaging with customers. As a bank, we need to work with our employees to make us the best bank to support the most Australians that we possibly can, and we can't do it without employees. I think the very specific answer to your question is that we are committed to supporting our employees, benefiting from their contribution to all of our stakeholders and making sure that we underpin and invest in their ability to build their capabilities and experiences and this bank can't deliver anything without the support of our employees.

Thank you. I've got some of your employees here who are going to ask some questions as well around AI and other matters.

I appreciate that. Thank you very much. We go to microphone #3.

Chair, I'd like to introduce [ Adam Wareway ].

Welcome, Adam.

Hi, Chair. The bank created a human rights grievance mechanism in 2023 available to First Nations persons in Australia. This is a great thing to have. However, all the other big banks have a human rights grievance process available to all communities that face human rights impacts from that bank's lending. So my question is whether the bank has a plan to expand its human rights grievance mechanism to include all impacted communities aligned with the other big banks.

Thank you. We at CBA, focus on a lot of really important topics, including human rights or modern slavery, for instance. We've spent time on that in this last board cycle. We take a very broad approach to our roles and responsibilities for supporting all of our stakeholders and making sure that we have the right policies and frameworks and some more support mechanisms within the bank for bank customers, but also for bank communities. We outreach into the communities, and I mentioned the process of the indigenous community outreach program. So we will continue to reflect on what others do. but really focus on what we think is the right balance to engage with all of our stakeholders, including in the process that you identified. There are some things that we do better than others and some things that we can always learn from One of the benefits of today's meeting is to listen and reflect on the questions that were asked, the challenges that are given. And to, in a considered manner, go back to our Board table and speak to management about the things that we can always improve. As a bank, we're on a journey, we're always trying to do better. We aren't necessarily the best at everything, but we try to learn from everyone. So thank you for your question, and we'll reflect and take on notice your challenge to us today. We go to microphone #4.

Chair, I would like to introduce, Max.

Thank you. I work in our cybersecurity department at Commbank. Widespread concern on our floors is the in-office mandate, which arbitrarily forces workers to be in the on half of our working days. This introduces many issues, but most critically, it measurably decreases our performance and impact the effectiveness of engineering and cybersecurity teams to the point where it delays responses to urgent situations. As a major financial institute, these issues are vital. Is CommBank aware of these productivity issues caused by the in-office mandate and the potential impact that presents to stakeholders such as myself. And how do the benefits of this in-office mandate outweigh the problems that causes?

Well, Max, firstly, thank you for coming along and asking the question today. It's -- we take, as I mentioned, all of the feedback seriously. And as an employee, I think it's great that you've come and asked the questions that you've asked. We believe that -- and I'll get Matt to comment specifically in a moment, but we believe we struck the right balance in requiring people to work in office, at least 50% of any given month, particularly those in our corporate offices. Our frontline staff really don't have an option. They have to come to the branches or go into the contact centers. We don't anticipate any significant alteration to our current policy. But we do assess on a case-by-case basis, those requests that come from employees specifically on whether to provide exceptions and there are exceptions. To the specifics of your question, though, I will ask Matt to comment.

Thank you, Paul. And I just want to reiterate. Thank you very much for coming along Max and asking the question. And if you since you're in our cyber team, you know how much importance we're putting on that topic. I really want to thank you and the broader team for all of their hard work. Look very consistent with what Paul said. We believe that the existing policy, which requires people to be in office for at least 50% still provides for enormous flexibility. We do see real value in bringing and having our teams in the office. We see the benefits of that. We do believe there's also scope for personal flexibility. And I mean, based on the amount of very high-quality work that our cyber teams have been doing over many years, but particularly this year, I think, at least from our perspective, we've struck the right balance between flexibility and quality of work and creating the best environment for our teams.

We'll go to microphone #1.

Chair, I would like to introduce [ Michael Sanderson ].

Welcome, Mr. Sanderson. It's good to see you again.

Yes, good to see you, too.

We both look younger.

I was told a parliamentary committee here in where I was giving evidence that the [indiscernible] keeps my mind out of it.

Mine used to be bright red. It's very disappointing.

First thing, just a couple of comments. I'd like to make an apology for my friend and colleague, Mr. [ Saul Krip ], who planned to be here this morning, but in this digital age, his flight got bumped. And yes, we said logical for him to get here in time. Just another suggestion. This is taking a bit of a leaf at the millionaires club, the Macquarie Bank, they have a system where they get through a general business first. And then they do the quarterly questions at the end of it, those who are suffering from bank profit induced austerity can get a free feed or leave. I found it worked quite well. There was no restriction or whatever. Anyway, questions, my first question. I traveled down to Sydney from the major city of [ Karakari ], which, by the way, doesn't have a bank. When the CBA promised to protect regional branches, why did it adopt the Areas definition that can classify regions such as Albion Park, King Cliff Laura Belmont and Karakari as major cities. Even though other government frameworks treat them as regional. Was the Board aware of this slide of hand definition would exclude such communities from the pledge? And will it now review that classification?

Thank you very much for your question, Michael. As we mentioned, we're absolutely committed to regional Australia and have extended our commitment to December 2030 for our existing regional branches. We do look where there is a higher density of branches closer to population centers. And I note your question about the definition, but where there is a reasonable period, a reasonable distance a reasonable time for branches to remain open. And where we look at the traffic through those branches and the ability of customers to travel from one to another. That's a decision that's been taken. But to reiterate, for those branches in regional areas that are open now, they will remain open until 2030. So I can't kind of answer the question any more comprehensively than that.

You did say that you wanted with the advent of this new technology, you wanted to interact with consumers in a red more regular base. And how do you do that if consumers have to fly in some cases to get to a branch because it's too far away or even a half hour, that's shifting the cost onto the consumer on the back of -- it just doesn't gel.

I understand your point. We do look very closely at the traffic through the branch. And as I think we've said previously, 92% of all of our engagement is probably potentially high now is online. We have many customers who only want to operate online or use engagement centers. But where there is traffic in the branch, as I said, we're investing over $140 million in those areas where there is more activity to broaden that physical footprint so that customers have a better experience where that is necessary. It is a challenge. It's a trade-off. It's a balance. We're the first bank to make a regional commitment, and we've extended that. But very specifically, I think you're getting into some detail, I might just ask Matt to comment on as well.

I mean just only to add that there may well be other methodologies, but this is a methodology that the industry is used. It's very consistent. There's no change to that methodology. And so as Paul was recognized, we thought it was important to provide certainty, we do have the largest branch network. We have twice as many ATMs as any other financial institution where, as Paul touched on making significant investments and notwithstanding the frequency and how many of our customers are engaging with us online. We recognize the importance of having the right branch network to support customers, both in regional and remote areas, but also for some who prefer face-to-face, we also, of course, provide funding into Australia Post that has access to several thousand post offices around the country to also provide many of the services that we would be able to do so in branch.

And I don't know if you saw the Australian retail post retail inquiry got the CEO there just gutting Australia Post. It's going to be pretty hard to do banking business with a parcel locker. But anyway, nothing is probably enough on that one. I got my second question.

I think that was 2 questions, Mr. Sanderson I'll give you another one, but I know you'll be back. But I will rotate around the room if that's okay.

Okay. this 1 to do with preservation of cash and essential banking infrastructure. Your 2026 annual report emphasizes CBA's responsibility to maintain essential banking services including access to cash. However, in CBA's submission to the Council of Financial Regulators and the ACCC, CBA relied on industry projections that cash would account for just 4% of payments in 2030. Subsequent reserve bank research found that cash use has stabilized at approximately 15% of consumer payments in 2025. That's up a little bit on previous years. The 4 major bank cartel are seeking a 20-year authorization for a jointly controlled wholesale cash pool that would while temporary arm Guard support expired in June of 2026. What financial benefits, governance powers and obligations would CBAobtain under the proposal -- proposed cash pool. What independent evidence shows this will secure regional and remote cash access. And would the CBA support a nationwide whole of system cash network using Australia Post logistics underwritten by the Commonwealth?

I'm sure there was only one question in that, so I'll do my best to answer. The first thing I'd say is that we think the cash will be used in Australia for a long period of time to come. We spend approximately -- I think Matt, correct me if I've got it wrong, but over $400 million making sure that cash is available and can be distributed in the company. And I think one anecdote is there's more cash in circulation today than there has ever been. So CBA is committed to supporting cash and making sure that cash is available as broad as is possible. In terms of the specifics that you talked about, I know Matt has been focused on making sure that we're able to deliver on those commitments, and I'll get him to add some additional comment there.

Yes. No, thank you, Paul. Look, I think the most important point would be there is a long-term commitment to make sure that cash is being delivered across the economy safely and efficiently. While the proportion of payments using cash may reduce. There's still, as Paul touched on, a lot of cash in circulation. Understandably, people use cash infrequently but still value it. I cannot foresee a time when cash isn't being distributed around the country. I mean specifically, because it won't be -- most people won't understand some of the context around what you were saying with a commercial cash pool -- in effect, we pay a provider as to a number of other financial institutions and some retailers for cash to be distributed. There's another financial institution, which actually sort of does that directly. This is a joint venture across the major banks, precisely to the question of what would we anticipate our economic benefit to be 0 is the economic benefit that we would anticipate to be yielded from the commercial cash. We see it as a service that needs to be provided. The purpose of the joint venture is to have the parties who are otherwise bearing the costs basically being able to do that on a breakeven basis to ensure sustainability. This is a important long-term issue for which we are committed to making sure that we are making the necessary and suitable contributions to ensure that cash is delivered safely and efficiently.

We're going to pause there, if we may and...

I just want to get a quick comment on this, why don't you push the federal government to undertake a properly funded national cash distribution system. You both got to do a Royal Commission. I'm sure Young Jamie, would if you're told him do it, you do it.

I'll take that as a comment. Thank you, and we're going to move to microphone 4. But I do know you'll be back and you're very welcome to ask further questions.

Chair, I would like to introduce Mr. [ Vincent Myer ].

Welcome, Vincent.

My name is Vincent, I similarly work at the bank in cybersecurity as well. And we noted in your annual report that the head count in your offshore subsidiary in INA has increased again. That being said, at a much smaller rate of growth compared to previous years. Report this year also note that CBA has leased a new building in Bangalore, able to fit thousands more staff. And this has heightened concerns about the movement of work and with it, the data that goes offshore. So from this, I have 2 questions. One, what is CBA's long-term plan for the work and consequently, the customer data handled in that work in CB India? And second of all, what is CBA doing to ensure the retains sovereign control of a customer data and be sovereign capability for these critical functions and also in maintaining the risk around this data?

Thank you very much for your question. So just by way of context, before we establish CBA India, we did buy services or get support from external service providers in India through contracts. We took the view Board and management that we should actually have a stand-alone CBA business in India, a part of the whole group that actually would see us transferring from third-party service providers into a CBA employee direct business. We thought that gave better career progression for the people that we were using in India, brought them into the CBA group we could then manage and make sure that the work was allocated in the best way and the most efficient way coming back to Australia. We've also made sure that the broad and widest amount of work possible is done in Australia. But as we go to financial crime in particular, over the past 5 years is we've had to ramp up dramatically the amount of people focused on financial crime as have all of the financial institutions in Australia and around the world, there wasn't necessarily the capability and experience in Australia to meet that need such that we could comply with our legal obligations. So we did add people in India in that context. I think you'll find that the numbers are reasonably stable. You mentioned about new building. We had people in a number of buildings. We're trying to consolidate that again for better understanding and better capability. In terms of privacy, customer data security. We have very clear controls as to how all of that has to be managed within the CBA context. And we make sure through our Line 1, Line 2 and Line 3 controls that all of those requirements meet both Australian legal but our own policies and procedures. So that is an ongoing and important aspect of the group. If I come back to the broader question, as I commented with Paul a moment ago, we have to invest in Australian skills and capabilities. And you're in the cyber team, we're investing heavily in the cyber team. We've got great capability in Australia, but the risk and opportunity to do better in cyber requires us to invest in skills and capabilities, and we're doing that absolutely substantively in Australia, but we do need to look from complementary skills all around the world, and we've hired people from offshore into Australia to complement the teams. And Matt is going to take us through a little bit more detail to address more of the specific pence of your question.

Just a couple of specific points. One, the building that you're referring to has -- the establishment of that facility has been underway for many years. And that's important because I also want to say that there's to increase the number of employees Paul has talked through in terms of why the facility was established and predominantly the basis of what sort of work we're doing there. So number one, I think to your broader question, no, we're not planning to increase the number of employees in India. And then Secondly, all of the data and systems of record remain in Australia.

We move to microphone #1.

Chair, I would like to introduce [ Alan Golden ].

Welcome, Alan.

Hello, Mr. Chair. How are you today?

Very good. Good to see you again.

Yes. It's nice seeing you. You do look younger. I don't. I always look older these days, unfortunately. I'm here representing the Australian Shareholders Association. We're representing -- we have proxies -- sorry, we have 2,645,000 shares, which is entrusted to us by 1,031 shareholders. I won't make a comment. This is not a comment or a question, but if you want to talk about how Macquarie conducts their AGM as someone who monitors them for a number of years, I have a different view than the speaker before me on the -- I think this is a better procedure. But putting that up. I have a few questions, but I'll limit myself to 2 questions. And if others don't ask the other ones, you'll see me back later on. Thank you. My first one is almost a 2 parter. It's about New Zealand. After failing to monitor compliance issues at ASB, which resulted in a record civil flying. What I want to know in my first part is what actual changes have been made to ensure that the financial abuse and vulnerable customer controls are operating efficiently here. both of those words we said in the judgment by the way. In addition to the identified cultural issues, there are financial ones. In the June quarter, ASB won only 12.2% of new mortgages, well down from your usual share of 20%. Now one of your key management people here in Australia is moving as we speak, virtually from the institutional bank to lead ASB Bank in New Zealand. What is her move going to do to change the financial situation there?

That's a broad-ranging question, Alan. I think it goes to the governance of our subsidiary in New Zealand, ASB. So CBA, the first part of your question, I think CBA has been on a journey from the Royal Commission. I mentioned the Prudential Inquiry in my speech. The remedial action plan that was focused on improving our governance and our frameworks to make sure that CBA had the right policies and procedures, the right risk culture, the right governance, the right line 1, 2 and 3 operations within the business, both to maintain our ability to engage with the current business, but also to look to the strategy and the strategic risks into the future. ASB is going through a similar process. We had changes to our Board, our management team. We did a lot in Australia. And the ASB Board is driving a similar change with the support and engagement of CBA Board and the CBA management team. The CEO of ASB has been in that role longer than Matt's been in the role of CEO here in Australia, and it was entirely appropriate that, that person was ready to retire and we went through a pretty good rigorous succession process. And China, who has run Bankwest has been our Chief Operating Officer and the group executive for the Institutional Bank is going across to New Zealand to be the CEO of New Zealand, a decision that was made by the ASB Board that has the full support of the CBA Board and management team. And China actually spent time growing up in New Zealand in her earlier years. So I was quite familiar with New Zealand. I think she actually even goes to the ore blacks. So we'll put that...

Okay. So there is no -- it's just -- again, there's better oversight than what happened before because you got -- you had to give money back to people you got fine because it was said your oversight wasn't good enough. So is there more controls put in place? Are you doing the same sort of controls that you do here?

I think very specifically to that answer, the CBA policies and procedures of the other policies and procedures that need to be over all of our subsidiaries, except where local law requires a different answer. So we're being more focused on that perspective, absolutely. There have also been -- there's been renewal at the ASB Board level. We have brought on more banking expertise, both from globally and domestic to. So Alister Currie, who is on our Board has gone on to the ASB Board and Alan Dockety who is the CFO, has also gone on to the ASP board. So there's been governance renewal at ASB, which I think will help specifically address the points of your questions, which is to make sure the consistency and capability of the governance of ASP is as consistent with that of CBA as we can possibly make it. subject to any challenges or changes that the New Zealand law actually requires. And I think Matt wants to just elaborate on some of my answer.

Maybe just a couple of quick points. One, Victoria, who's the CEO of ASB, I think, has done a very good job in that role. And throughout her career at CBA, which is extended for more than 2 decades. In saying that, of course, it doesn't imply that there isn't more work to do. Like all of us, I think we can always identify things that we would like to be doing better. We're fortunate to have someone of China's quality and the depth of succession and capability inside the organization. ASB has and will continue to be a high priority for the group, and Paul's touched on a couple of the more recent changes -- and then perhaps lastly, I just distinguish between the business performance versus some of the regulatory having been through the business performance I think any changes in the volume, I think you were referring specifically to home lending, it tends more to be about the economic returns that are available specifically the home lending margins inside New Zealand can be very volatile. And I think the team has done a good job to make sure they're not underwriting or originating mortgages below the cost of capital because by definition, that's value destructive.

Great. Okay. My second question. In your annual report, in June, the total impairment provision, and I understand that doesn't mean that those businesses and individuals are in default or anything else. It means that you're having a watching brief on these ones. But anyhow, that provision was $6.37 billion according to your annual report, what I want to know is, has that increased?

Do you want to talk to the September?

Well, we -- the numbers that we can talk about today to 30 June. Obviously, we have finished our September quarter, but we will be releasing the results of that in November. I think, look, we spoke about a number of trends, which I think is reasonable to stay -- or say would be continuing to be evident, which is, one, we're maintaining provisions well above the sort of central economic scenario. I think it's important to have loan loss provisions that give us the capacity to deal with a range of different economic scenarios. This is one of the topics that's been on our mind for many years. I think it's very important that the organization remains in a position of strength -- and even though our forecast economic scenario has not changed dramatically. We certainly have the capacity to be able to support customers at a much more adverse perspective. Secondly, in the context of higher rates and slowing economic growth, we're acutely aware of some of the pressures that are being felt across the economy, obviously, in households and more broadly. And so whilst we didn't see and we're not anticipating a rapid deterioration, it is the time to be watching very carefully, but also, of course, to be making sure we're doing everything that we can to be supporting customers where they made that.

Okay. Thank you. And hopefully, other people will ask the questions I want to ask. You won't see me again.

That's right. Alan, did you want to add? Sorry, can we just go to Alan?

Yes. Just a specific response on the number that you quoted. So that was an increase on the -- that was a June 2025 provision. That was the comparative number. That was about $100 million increase on the June '24 possession. At June 2026, we've got another $100 million on those provisions just in recognition of the rise in geopolitical and macroeconomic uncertainty. So yes, those provisions have increased over the previous 2 subsequent financial years. That's the point.

Yes. So yes, we'll wait until November, and we'll see where it is. But there is a natural increase that is happening there. That's the comment I was referring to. So thanks, Alan. We go to microphone #6.

Chair, I would like to introduce [ Kylie Level ].

Welcome, Kylie.

Thank you. My question is regarding regional brand -- or sorry, retail range closures. I work for the Finance Sector Union and the Celcom -- as recent announcement to extend the moratorium and regional branch closures until the end of 2030. While this provides certainty for customers, communities and staff in those regional areas, we are still seeing a continued closure of metropolitan branches. Since the moratorium was first announced in 2023, over 100 metropolitan branches have closed and already this financial year, that is within the last 3 months. CBA has either closed or announced the closure of 26 metropolitan branches. With that, my question has 2 parts. Will CBA extend the moratorium to stop the continued closure of Metropolitan branches. And how will CBA provide the certainty for its metropolitan communities and staff?

Thank you, Kylie. Thank you for your question. I think customer engagement is just really important, whether it's online or physical. As I mentioned earlier, the way customers bank is changing, and we have to actually change with what our customers present and that sometimes comes with challenge. But there are now almost 10 million active app users and more than 2 million customer interactions across voice and messaging services each month. The investment to support customers who want to interact that way is really important, and we will continue to focus on that. We are proud to have Australia's largest branch network and the most bank-owned ATMs, and we do support Australia at Post. So from a physical perspective, the team is always looking at the best way to make sure that we engage with customers and some branches that we are expanding because they're higher traffic, higher demand from our customers. So we will continue to look at the right way to present that network. We've made the commitment today not to close any of our regional branches at least until 2030 but we do have to engage with the way customers engage with us and make sure we appropriately provide the services that they need. Thank you very much. We go to microphone #5.

Chair, I would like to introduce Mr. [ S.K. Peng ].

Welcome, Mr. S.K. Peng.

Good morning, Mr. Chair and Board members and the management team. Thank you for the work for the past year. And thank you very much for all the cybersecurity staff that attend this meeting. This question is about AI. I'm sure many of the shareholders will concern their shareholders' value and our bank account safety with Commonwealth Bank. In view of the recent Medicare and had can face intrusion incidents, what kind of -- what kind of measures that the bank have taken to make sure that we will counter a fight for this kind of incident in the following 3 aspects. First, will the companies take legal action against the intruder despite of their size, even if they are very big AI companies. Second, what kind of Tan AIs are in place to fight for this kind of interior incidents. Can the bank, for example, react within 24 minutes, like how can they set up. First, does the bank have human oriented AI strategies. That is to say, have a human in the loop, human off a site on its AI development cycle and over empowering our people, human resources instead of just using AI to cut the human resources?

Thank you. There's a lot in that question. Cybersecurity is an incredibly important Tier 1 risk for the bank and for all of Australia. You referenced activity outside of the bank. We need to make sure that we've the capability and the tools amongst our people and some of them are here today. to actually ensure that we can understand AI risk, cyber risk and take the steps to protect the external perimeter of the bank, but to monitor the bank's engagement with potential cyber threats and there's activity every single day on that through so many different challenges. So it's an incredibly important area of focus to us. I think I mentioned earlier that we spend over $1 billion a year, making sure that we're addressing scams and frauds and cyber risk. So the investment is dramatic. It's in people and capability that is really important and developing those skills in Australia that's important, whether it's at CBA or across the national spectrum of businesses and government and a credit to Matt and the team, who spend a lot of time dealing with government agencies and supporting other Australian businesses large and small, to both understand and specifically support them with their cybersecurity arrangements as well. In relation to the hypothetical of legal action, that's one for another day. I think each cybersecurity threat we address in the moment, but we also have the systems in place to deal with that if there's ever an event, we would hope that, that does not occur, but we would deal with that in the moment. The entire focus of our technology is to make sure that we can better serve our customers safely and securely and scams and fraud prevention is a critical part of that, that we give our employees the tools and time to learn -- to use those tools to support us on cyber. And to be able to do that more quickly. The one thing about AI is that cyber activity is relentless and much more speedy in its ability to identify vulnerabilities, and Matt has pivoted the organization quite dramatically to lean into that increased risk as well. And it is such a broad topic and you asked so many questions, I will stop there and ask Matt to elaborate on areas to complement my answers.

Thank you, Paul, and thank you very much for the question. as Paul touched on, there's a lot in that, but I'll try and answer fairly succinctly to your 3 points. The first, I think, was around if there was a cyber event what would we be my words dissuaded from taking legal action if depending on the origin or the size or scale of the company, no?

No. Just like if there are cyber attests like what is a tackle on the Medicare system, will the bank take action?

Yes. So we, of course, would reserve any of our legal rights. But by far and away, the most important thing is also then how do you protect and defend the organization and then detect any unexpected or unauthorized activity Paul touched on it briefly, cyber is -- has been for many years, one of the most important risks to manage. There's no doubt in my mind. I think it's the Certainly, one of the risk that has deteriorated the most in cyber risk, I think there's a much heightened cyber risk globally. It is, of course, a huge priority for us. We in the last financial year, as Paul touched on, in the areas around cyber, financial crime scams fraud. We invested more than $1 billion. It's fair to say we have increased our investment in the current financial year in FY '27. Secondly, I think your question was around specifically sort of hugging phase, 24 minutes. Maybe I won't go into the stopwatch measurement. But it is necessary one of the things that is required is to be using the models internally to both respond to any external threats and also to be managing. We have a very capable team to my earlier answer, which we're very grateful for having such skills internally. There is quite a lot of sophistication to be able to run a lot of models and to be using those to be both securing our systems and defending them in as close to real time as you can. And then the third was really around the sort of human in the loop. So across many aspects, there are a variety of different controls. And this is why I would say it's the most important thing. Ultimately, we remain we retain responsibility for the use of any of those AI tools or models. Of course, often that's human has to be both overseeing the totality of the system. And in some areas, we're moving to increasingly the need to be able to respond, like I said, as close to real time. And so this is a very challenging dynamic, one that's rightly occupying a lot of our time and investment. And most importantly, using the tools and capabilities that are available on a global basis, supplemented by or what we think and hope is the best cyber team in Australia to defend the organization and to protect our customers and the community.

Thank you very much. In response to the second part of the question, I understand that there are regulatory requirements about business continuity and operational resilient. There is a set of scenario that the bank will respond within a certain time frame. I hope that the bank have established cyber securities and this kind of AI intrusion instance as one of the scenario.

Thank you very much. I think just to add to that, there is a requirement on the bank through CPS 230 to make sure that we do focus on resilience and there are scenarios undertaken with that, and there are minimum service requirements, and that is there is oversight on that by the Australian Prudential regulatory authority. So there is a whole mechanism within our risk frameworks to make sure that we do focus on resilience, and it is incredibly important. Thank you for your questions. If we go to microphone #2.

Chair, I would like to introduce [ John Lisher ] from Cairns.

Welcome John Lisher all the way from Cairns. If you could just speak into the microphone.

Good morning, Board. I'd just like to firstly thank the Board and all the CBA staff who've contributed to the $11 billion profit. And also, I'm very happy that you've decided to expand the regional program of keeping banks open. Mine is more a request that leads to a question. But before I say that, I'd just like to mention my father 94 who has CommBank shares, but he can't attend today. He's still going, which is good. And his big concern was about what I'm about to say next is that is there any scope to reopen the Mount Shared and Commonwealth Bank? Because I'm aware their branch there. That's part of the Cairns area. There's massive development going. There's about 40,000 homes going to be built in that Southern Cairns area and particularly so because after Cyclone Jasper the northern area, people have shaded away because they had a lot more flood there. But getting back to the actual request to reopen that Mount Sheraton branch, a lot of the statistics were based on Dodge that they used foot traffic and transactions because when it closed in 2022, the statistics used where it was -- they didn't -- foot traffic and business transactions and so forth. -- were down low. That's because in the previous 12 or 2 years due to various premier shutting down states the staff in those branches were redirected to other areas, so you couldn't judge the foot traffic. So my comment is and request is it's not a complaint, it's just a request and all the staff in the areas of Cairns are great. And as we lived in Brisbane and Koolan and now are grade 2, is there any scope to reopen the Mt Sheraton branch. My 94-year-old father would be very happy.

Thank you very much, and thank you from coming all the way from Cairns and please pass on our best wishes to your father. He's been very well represented by you today. I'm going to take that question on notice and look to my CEO on the left to see if you can add some specific answer to that one.

Well, again, thank you for the question. And of course, we'll take any personal request on notice. I do know that while I understand the nearest branch is about 6 kilometers away also, but I recognize that would most likely still be far more convenient for your father to visit the existing branch. But I think as Paul has touched on a few times today, we will continue to try to strike the right balance between making sure that we're supporting our customers with the largest branch network, but also recognize that customer preferences and the way our customers are interacting with us is changing very rapidly. And so that's why we've been prepared to make longer-term commitments in regional areas. You touched on some of the measures. But I mean, ultimately, obviously, more customers who bank with us in areas where we're the last bank or 1 of the few financial institutions is the key determinant of whether we stay in that area over the long term. But as I said, I will pass your request on to our Head of Retail, Angus, who's sitting in the front row here.

Thank you very much. I'm going to take another 3 questions in the room, and then we'll go online. But we will come back to the room and go backwards and forwards a little bit. So if we go to microphone #3, please.

Chair, I would like to introduce Mr. Robert [ Catterson ].

Thank you, Board. Thank you for a wonderful performance in this year with this bank in compared to the other 3 banks operating in this country. It's a wonderful indication that we've got a good board and a good management team with the bank. Also with your support of female sport in this country with Socceroos and other female sporting entities with this -- in the community. But Specifically, my 2 questions are, we had the Telstra incident recently with their minor shutdown of half the country. And obviously, Optus had a similar event just recently as well. Are we making sure that our relationship with our telecommunications companies, partners, whatever you wish to call them sort of making sure that we're still open for business and making sure that these companies make sure that these systems still operate for the benefit of the bank and the businesses and the individuals that they support. That's the first question.

Do you want me -- I'll answer that one first, if you like. But firstly, thank you for your comments about supporting women's sport and we have, as I mentioned, we've got an incredibly committed workforce across CBA that's doing everything that possibly can every day to deliver the best customer experiences and to our employees, we're extremely grateful for their commitment -- in relation to working across the whole of the national infrastructure to make sure that Australians aren't impacted through cyber outages or technical outages. The Board and management take that responsibility extremely seriously. We have to make sure that CBA has the right cybersecurity resilience and technology platforms and backup plans to make sure that if there are events that we can respond very quickly to make sure services stay at the best availability possible. The team, particularly through Matt, but also the technology team does work with other Australian companies, as I've mentioned, and specifically with Telstra and Optus to share learnings, share experiences and to provide the support because there is a substantial interdependency of companies to make sure that we collectively can support Australians, whether it's through financial products or telecommunications, but just doing daily online activity. So yes, national resilience and CBA resilience are extremely important, and it's an area of focus that we invest heavily and from an engagement perspective, and Matt may want to comment Matt and the team engaged directly with other large and smaller Australian companies to learn from and provide support to activities associated with service delivery.

Perhaps just to underscore a couple of things. A, the importance of this topic. As all of us live our lives more digitally. The service continuity and recovery for all critical infrastructure is incredibly important. We work very closely. With the companies that you mentioned and a number of others, our teams also have the opportunity to sort of debrief and understand privately, anything more that would have contributed and also what we could learn from. And notwithstanding this has been 1 of the best years touchwood, that we've had for many, many years on service continuity and reliability. I add that only to say that we're all salable. It's one of the things that, I mean, truly worries me in this role is the implications, and this is why we spend so much time and investment and building resilience and recovery and different scenarios and testing those different scenarios, but I also recognize the fallibility of any company of any technology solution. So maybe just to reassure you with how seriously we take this issue.

Yes. Now my second question goes to the whole range of things that you mentioned in the opening video about cost of living, inflation and everything like that. Recently, we've got the Reserve Bank and the reserve bank is talking about future interest rate rises based on inflation, which is totally out of the nation's control. The nation is not spending like while sailors going down to Harvey Normans spending money on big screen TVs. They're spending money on basic everyday items like petrol and third, right? And a lot of these inflationary pressures are internationally based at the present time and how dare the Reserve Bank placed more costs on not only itself, the Australian government and the taxpayer. But why should those decisions impact the interest rate decisions that the bank has to make and pass those on to the customers. And also in terms of res and debate about credit card surcharges, Well, I'm being shareholder and I'm part of this business. And I think, well, if I go to a coffee shop or if I go to somewhere where there's been a surcharge, they're entitled to run a business sale. So if we go -- and I know Mr. Comyn goes to parliament every 12 months, along with all the other banks and it's drilled by the government senators. Well, why can't we do the same thing and present our case responsibly and assertively to make sure that we look after our business interests and not just our towering to either reserve bank or Mr. Charmers.

Thank you for your question, Robert. I think cost of living pressures in Australia are impacting everyone. And the causes of that are widespread, and you've mentioned many of them. But I think -- the first thing to acknowledge is that everyone is feeling that pressure at the moment, absolutely. Inflation certainly contributes to that. And the Reserve Bank governor talks to that and they have an independent mandate to try and keep inflation within a range of 2% to 3% and to support employment. Inflation has been -- I think in August, it was at 4%. So inflation is outside the range. Inflation is not good for the country. Increasing prices is not good for the country. And I think your question goes to the point as to what's the best way to address that as a bank, what's in our control to make sure that we have a resilient balance sheet so that we can support Australians. One thing we learned and particularly through the cover pandemic is that when times are tough, as a bank, we've got to stand up and support the breadth of our customers to the best ability that we can. And that can be through providing policy feedback, which Matt does very well, and you've mentioned some of those forums on what should be the right tax policy for Australia? What are the considerations associated with that? What do Australians want? Australians want more support that comes with challenges as to how to fund that. How do we get inflation down? Well, the one thing that is very, very challenging on that is productivity, -- and we've been talking as a bank and Matt's been talking as have the leadership team through strategy sessions on the challenges of improving productivity in Australia because ultimately, we are able to better handle inflation if we can increase the supply of all of the goods and services that we use at a lower cost. And until we address productivity, it will be challenging to actually get everything back to a point where cost of living pressures aren't easy. We also know there are external shocks with fuel. We feel that immediately in our wallets every day when we go to flip our vehicles. So I think productivity is really important. As a bank, we lent $40 billion to businesses last year. We have to support customers across the whole of Australia by making sure that we run the bank and I acknowledge your very first comment, by making sure that we collectively run the bank as effectively as we possibly can, then we've got to have the best balance sheet to continue that support to Australia. But there are no easy answers at the moment, but the 1 that I would suggest we need to focus on as much as we can, and it's everyone's opportunity, regulators, governments, businesses is just to focus on working how to improve productivity. I can go around in circles because I think all of us read the papers, all of us pay the bills. All of us have a view and opinion. We're trying to do the best we can to support all of our customers through what is an incredibly challenging time. And as I mentioned in COVID, we learned that by supporting our customers, we help them to get to the other side of the COVID pandemic. We need to make sure we're supporting our customers get through this cost of living crisis and provide counsel and support as best we can as we do that.

Thank you. Thank you very much. And one more, you mentioned COVID. This was the only bank that supported its shareholders through that time compared to the other banks. Thank you.

Thank you. And I think that just highlights the importance of having great people and a strong balance sheet. If we go to microphone #1.

Chair, I would like to introduce [ Peter Star ].

Welcome, Mr. Star.

You've touched on some things in your speech there. We talk about the Royal Commission and things like that and what the bank has been doing. And I think that's a credit to you in both Matt, that you embrace those things and turning around, things which is good I noticed that some concerns I had in relation to that I raised, we've met and Matt acted very quickly in relation to his picture in Allen Cole's picture being spooked for people to open accounts and things. And these are the things that concern me. I know it concerns others in the room, and it was mentioned yesterday that the Telstra and I raised with Vicki and Craig done about for everything good in the concerns I have and others have and other shareholders in the room about AI can just put Matt's picture and our on cola and tell people open accounts. And it sounds to me that people actually go and do that, thinking that Matt and Allen Cole and thank God, Matt's got it pulled down, but maybe Matt could speak to that and about the other issues that are going on with schemes. And I have a second question, but I'll wait for those answers.

Thanks, Mr. Star. Scams and frauds are just there are toxic kind of praying on Australians and investment schemes in particular, and with the use of AI. AI is so good now that you sometimes do not know whether you're talking to a real person or not. I'll get Matt to talk to the specifics. But just to reiterate, we are spending a vast amount of money to both understand the threat, but also to repulse the threat. And the bad actors are working harder and harder to actually try and get money off Australian. So I think understanding how proliferating the scams can be as important. One thing I'll acknowledge is that Matt and the team, our cyber team in particular, spent a lot of time engaging with government on the scams prevention framework, which will come into effect in March. And as I mentioned earlier, making sure that there's a collaboration between the banks, the telcos and the platforms that host a lot of that activity and that there's a sharing of information real time to take down system-wide, the avenues that are being used by scams is really important. So there are some gaps in the national defense at the moment, if I put it that way. that the scams prevention framework when it rolls out will hopefully address particularly by bringing in those platforms that actually are outside the scope at the moment. And who host a lot of those schemes that focus is really important to the specifics. Matt?

I mean, just to add, I mean, historically, many of those scams are sort of poor quality. And perhaps the very degrees it was easier to discern the difference. I think we should prepare for the reality that the quality of those scans and the likeness authenticity will be harder to detect. That said, I will never be promoting an investment on any social media. So -- but the quality will get better and better, unfortunately, which again highlights why it's so important that we are using the technology to protect our customers. As Paul touched on, I think the most important thing over the next 12 months will be the rollout of the scans protection framework. And what that simply means is there's obligations on financial institutions and telcos, but also the tech platforms, a number of whom operate globally, and there's a requirement for them to operate under those laws and conditions. And one of the aspects of that is exactly in the example that you raised, when something like that is detected, then there is a time frame by which it needs to be taken down to minimize the number of people that could be received. And I think this is an important and complex piece of legislation, but one that when it is executed and done well, will strengthen protections in Australia and hopefully makes Australia less of a target for a number of the offshore jurisdictions, which specifically target Australia in these areas.

And secondly, Paul, and again, it goes to Matt, is that I noticed that thanks to you, Matt, that [ Hallie Yemen ] from CommSec who you organized to work with me and fix things up absolutely tremendous. And I'm very key how the AI technology now in CommSec being used about to summarize things in that. And I think that's a very good thing, Matt. And again, I just want to personally think you would caught up at a number of the things at the Hilton in March. And you always ask me, did I get things out of that. And thanks to you. I got a lot out of it. And I know that when you speak at those events, people really focus on what you have to say because it's really important. And just generally for the shareholders in the room, if you haven't listened a week or so ago, Matt was interviewed by Alan Kohler and I can highly recommend that to the shareholders in the room just to have a listen. I think it's well worth to listen to that. But again, I want to thank you, Matt.

Thank you very much, Mr. Star. And for your gracious comments. Did you have anything you want to add, Matt?

Well, I guess to confirm the interview with Alan was real in that instance Unlike some of the scam ads, and I know that Hallas and our CommSec team enjoys supporting you. It's nice to see you.

We'll go to microphone #6.

Chair, I would like to introduce [ Michael Vanderclaw ].

I'm an employee and engineer the SRE team. Chair, the CBA's latest published WGEA figures, show a median total remuneration gender gap of 26.8%. During enterprise bargaining, the bank rejected incorporating specific gender pay gap commitments or targets into the enterprise agreement, citing its existing reporting and governance processes. Does the Board consider those existing arrangements adequate? And if the current gender pay gap is unacceptable, what measurable reduction is the Board committed to achieving over the next few years?

Thank you, Michael. I think you asked a question on an incredibly important topic, which is to make sure that for equal role and experience that there's equal pay. And we focus on gender pay gap in 2 broad areas. One is to make sure that when we have people doing jobs that they paid the same for doing those jobs. And as experience goes up, that's reflected. The WGEA data you're talking to looks at the total pay of females versus males, within CBA. And we have a structural area, which we have to invest in. Tech jobs tend to get paid more than direct customer service jobs, and tech jobs and it kind of goes all the way back to university and education where there tend to be more males going into stem roles, science, technology, engineering than females. So we have to start right back at the beginning and make sure that we support females to finish maths and sciences at high school to go more into STEM at universities and then attract them at an equal rate or a higher rate than meant into the engineering roles where we're increasingly investing because that's fundamentally in banking where more of the higher-value jobs are. So in terms of your question as to what we're doing, we're absolutely talking about it at the Board, but we've got to focus on that investment to make sure that we're actually supporting young women with the best opportunities to get higher-paying jobs. And that, to me, is the fundamental issue within the WGEA that, that data highlights, and it's not something that's just domain to the CBA. It's across financial institutions. It's across all companies in Australia, and I think it's a very important area of focus.

I have a follow-up. Chair. The bank also relies on existing reporting and governance processes. But the published WGEA figures are too aggregated to assess where the gender disparities exist in promotion and remuneration within comparable employee cohorts. Does the bank conduct longitudinal analysis, these outcomes by gender, grade and job family? And will it publish appropriately anonymized results so employees and shareholders can independently assess whether its measures are working?

Yes. Thank you. We provide focus on gender balance at board, ELT group executives, all the way through to executive managers, and we have actual targets to make sure we get that tender balance right. and we're working on those targets all of the time. It does take longitudinal focus. It's an area that we have to keep investing, making sure that we're assessing, having the right the right group of people applying for jobs, supporting diversity through those applications, making sure that we have assessment and support so that there's not a bias going through those decisions. and that making sure in job families, as I said, that there is deep analysis to ensure same pay for same activity. So the Board focuses on that. The management team focuses on that we engage on that all of the time. So we report our targets, and we do provide commentary on that, and we do the WGA take reporting -- but internally, it is much more specific. And I think we're comfortable with the way that reporting is. But I think your question is it's the same question that directors and management ask of each other every time we look at that issue. But I'll go back to your first question. Australia needs investment to make sure that we get gender diversity into those jobs with really good opportunities into the future, and it's an area where we can all improve in supporting that focus.

If those analyses are done, though, surely, you can commit to publishing them?

I think there's a lot of things that we are asked to do and we'll continue to revise our processes and our reporting. We get very substantive reporting across so many aspects, including how we support employees. So I'm going to leave the answer to that question there at the moment. I think we're going to go online now for some questions for a period of time.

Thanks, Chair. We have a question from shareholder, David Bryce. Does CBA consider AI technology, a threat to how CBA operates as a business considering CBA is renowned not only as a banking institution, but as a technology company?

I think we see AI as both an opportunity for the bank and for Australia, but not without its risk. And I think there have been many questions today about cybersecurity in particular, and Mr. Star's questions around scams and frauds. AI will certainly improve the bad actors ability, whether it's cyber or scams and frauds. But it gives us the opportunity to actually make sure that our controls are more comprehensive that we can respond to challenges more quickly. We can improve the speed with which we patch systems, for instance. So there's an opportunity which I think Australia nationally and businesses individually and individuals all have the ability to participate from. But there is absolutely no doubt that it brings threats with it. So we have to understand both sides of that equation, and CBA is investing heavily to make sure that we've got the right people with the right tools and the systems and processes and the right thinking around where those threats might be to address that challenge.