The banking sector may learn from, and be wary of, the Royal Commission Into Crown Melbourne.
Ray Finkelstein will serve as Commissioner and will hand down his recommendations by 1 August 2021.
The Crown royal commission will enable banks and other financial institutions ensure their processes remain robust when dealing with customers that operate in high risk areas.
Mainstream media coverage will inevitably focus on the gaming business and what people failed to do to ensure they prevented inappropriate conduct taking place within the entity. That is appropriate and banks will be all too familiar with the way this works from their experience with the Hayne juggernaut.
Risk management personnel in the banking sector, however, will need to focus on the way in which the customer, Crown Casino in Melbourne, dealt with the gaming operations and how internal controls in the casino during the period in question.
It is critical that people within banks draw out the threads from the tapestry presented before the commission to refine what they do when they deal with customers in sectors such as gaming where illicit funds may be laundered through the operations.
The Bergin report that resulted in Crown losing the ability to run the Barangaroo premises as a casino provided banks with good news. It was clear that bankers did the right thing in pressuring Crown executives to justify the way in which they were running the transfer accounts that sat in separate entities.
An equally critical question for people to contemplate is what happens when such accounts are not properly monitored, or internal controls complied with by responsible managers?
The critical point for people in the financial services sector watching the upcoming Crown Casino hearings is a very simple one.
This latest royal commission will be an opportunity for bankers and, frankly, other corporate entities to learn from the mistakes of others rather than going through the pain of learning from your own.