Harsh treatment of farmer borrowers and the necessity for banks to think of the humanity of their credit management practices provided a social justice twist on the opening day of the fourth round of Kenneth Hayne's banking inquiry in Brisbane yesterday.Banks, though, can ill afford the forbearance demanded by disgruntled customers and endorsed by counsel assisting the royal commission, Rowena Orr, in her final question to a veteran ANZ fixer at the end of the day.Credit quality in farming and agribusiness is crook, with default rates and impairment ratios materially higher than the industry-wide averages. Across the banking sector, impaired facilities and past due items as a proportion of gross loans and advances was 0.83 per cent at March 2018, APRA data shows.At ANZ, 2.24 per cent of ANZ agricultural clients have one or more facilities in default, Orr told Hayne, based on the bank's submissions to the inquiry.Bendigo and Adelaide Bank and its Rural Bank arm provided the highest ratios cited in Orr's catalogue, though definitions used and periods covered differ at each bank. She said that, as at March 2018, an average of 1.06 per cent of Bendigo's agricultural clients and 3.91 per cent of Rural Bank agricultural clients had one or more facilities in default.Commonwealth Bank advised that 144 of its agricultural clients were "in regulatory default", representing 0.6 per cent of this group of customers. At CBA's Bankwest division, 1.71 per cent of agricultural clients were in monetary default and 1.66 per cent were in non-monetary default as at June last year, Orr said.National Australia Bank told the commission that 1.06 per cent of its agricultural clients "had one or more facilities in default" as at June 2017.Rabobank Australia reported 0.69 per cent of agricultural clients had one or more facilities in default, as at June 2017, Orr said.