The Commonwealth Bank, in its submission to the Royal Commission into banking misconduct, has challenged senior counsel assisting Rowena Orr on her definitions of "misconduct" and "conduct falling below community standards and expectations".CBA's response began with a defence of the commission structure that it has in place for mortgage brokers. The bank, while conceding that its broker commission structure is linked to the size of the loan, and this can lead to a conflict between the customer's interest and the broker's interest, went on to point out that any change away from commissions needed to be "industry wide". The bank also noted that if a loan application is approved the customer's loan documentation describes the amount of commission payable as "not ascertainable".CBA made a second point around its concern that the commission will make a finding that the manner in which it monitored the activities of head groups breached its obligations under the NCCP Act and the Corporations Act.In particular, CBA was keen to dispel any notion that it regarded any CBA-accredited broker as acting as its agent, despite the fact that an agreement between CBA and the head group described the head group as "our agent". CBA said this was only in relation to the head group's "completion and collection of customer identification tax file number disclosure privacy protection of information forms and any bank account opening application."The logic behind this was that any conflict of interest is limited to legal arrangements between customers and brokers not customers and the bank.CBA has therefore asked the commission to conclude the interposed step of a broker who is, nevertheless, authorised to submit a loan application does so acting as the agent of the customer not as agent of the lender. In this regard, the bank noted that all brokers and head groups were required to have their own ACL and brokers provide a "credit service" as defined in the NCCP Act.As a further exercise in finger-pointing CBA noted that it has in place controls "to ensure compliance by the head groups and its accredited mortgage brokers with CBA's Mortgage Broker Code of Conduct". The bank also asserted that internal audit reports pointing out weaknesses in its assessment of brokers did not amount to contraventions of the NCCP Act nor the corporations act as these were intended to identify areas where improvement could be made.CBA then went on to attack the third "alleged misconduct finding" which was that it breached its obligations under the NCCP Act or the Corporations Act by failing to disclose commissions paid to head groups. CBA's argument is that: "simply put, this is because brokers had the legal obligation to make these disclosures, while CBA had no such obligation."CBA also took the opportunity to argue that misconduct may be a legal term but "conduct falling below community standards and expectations conveys a breach of some general moral duty," and is "not reflected in any legal or professional norm".It was the bank's apparent contention that this term is so