While executive remuneration was the main focus of shareholder discontent at Westpac's AGM yesterday, this was not the only topic to occupy the diplomacy skills of chairman Lindsay Maxted, who remained on his feet for more than two hours.The AGM was the venue for a wide ranging - and respectful - debate on topics as far apart as climate change and new accounting standards for loss provisioning in the lead-up to the very heavy first strike against the executive remuneration reportMaxted's opening speech, and that of CEO Brian Hartzer, included the expected mea culpas over allowing poor behaviour to thrive.But Maxted did not wait long before taking a swipe at any suggestion the bank was engaged in lending for profit at the expense of risk management. "As a bank whose success is linked to the fortunes of Australia and New Zealand, we have no interest in lending to individuals or companies who cannot repay their loans," he said. "Shareholders need to only look to the outcomes of our lending for evidence. Today our credit quality metrics remain near cyclical lows across both businesses and consumers. In mortgages for example, less than 1 per cent of our mortgage loans are more than 90 days in arrears, and for a portfolio with an exposure of more than A$550 billion, the losses in 2018 were $86 million," Maxted said.Nevertheless, there were four key lessons, he said in his opening remarks•    We did not sufficiently understand and analyse customer complaints and, in many cases, they were not dealt with promptly enough. •    We were slow to focus on certain non?financial risks, remaining focused on the financial risks of credit and liquidity and lifting the overall strength of the balance sheet, diverting attention away from conduct, compliance and reputation risks. •    Some employee remuneration arrangements inadvertently contributed to poor behaviour. •    We did not fully appreciate the underlying risks in the financial planning business. Among the positives, Maxted pointed the appointment of a customer advocate, Adrian Ahern, to create a new, independent approach to resolving long?standing issues and providing objective feedback on how we can better manage complaints. Ahern will be backed up by the appointment of a new group executive for customer and corporate relations, which means the management of complaints has been elevated to the executive team. Australian Shareholders Association representative John Campbell, said the proxies he'd garnered would have made the ASA Westpac's 14th largest shareholder, and that equated to around 0.3 per cent of issued capital.He took issue with Maxted's comments on credit quality, and also that that there was going to be a one-off adjustment of $709 million as a result of a new accounting standard.Maxted, in turn reiterated the bank's assumptions that there will be no marked increase in credit losses over the next 12 months, underpinned by the strength of the Australian economy."In regard to the one off adjustment, it's due to a change in accounting standards, and while it affects all companies, it's most pronounced in banks, due