The Australian Bankers Association appears to have convinced its Big Four members that the industry needs more proactive strategies to blunt community dislike of them.The ABA's CEO, Steven Münchenberg, confirmed yesterday that ABA members have approved consultations with critics, including consumer groups and unions.These consultations appear to be modelled on similar consultations pursued some years ago by the mining industry, which, Münchenberg argues, led that industry to change its behaviour and quieten some of its fiercest critics.The ABA will also undertake further research into public views on the industry.Existing consumer research from the ABA has consistently shown broad public hostility to the banking industry. The latest research for the ABA, by public opinion analysis firm UMR, released yesterday, shows that trend continuing: it shows most people view the banks as powerful, greedy and bureaucratic.The end result of the ABA's consultations is likely to be a series of proposals to address some of the most telling criticisms. Such proposals, however, would require separate sign-off from the Big Four and other ABA members. The ABA has for many years operated in the shadow of perhaps the most infamous episode in Australian corporate lobbying - the secret "cash for comment" payments to broadcasters Alan Jones and John Laws, which was revealed in 1999. One view is that this has made the ABA too reluctant to go on the front foot against critics.But Münchenberg told Banking Day that the industry needed to take steps to better understand the community's expectations of it. "We can't allow cash-for-comment to haunt us forever," he said."As an industry, we are in some ways falling short of community expectations… We need, as an industry, to get a better handle on what the community expects of us."He also said that the industry's aim must be to respond to those expectations, not just to find new ways to "spin" its existing behaviour.Münchenberg set out the banking industry's reputational challenge and the need for proactive solutions in a speech a year ago. He argued then that by allowing their reputation to languish, the banks opened themselves to political and regulatory punishment. He contrasted the banks with the miners, who, he said, had moved many years ago not just to holding talks with indigenous communities and environmental groups, but also to committing to and implementing changes. Münchenberg's September 2010 concerns proved prescient. Within weeks, the banks were dragged into a brawl between Opposition spokesman Joe Hockey and federal Treasurer Wayne Swan on how to "rein in" the industry. That political debate demonstrated how receptive the Australian public is to an anti-bank message.The banks have since moved their marketing sharply towards taking a more pro-consumer tone. Indeed, one of the ABA's challenges now is to polish up the industry's overall image, even as ABA members squabble over who treats the customer best.