While AMP investors might hope that the departures of David Murray and John Fraser from the board will clear the decks for a governance reset of the stricken financial services group, it’s not clear whether remaining directors can avoid accountability for a litany of recent failings.

Murray implied almost as much after he announced his resignation as chairman, noting that the controversial appointment of Boe Pahari as executive head of AMP Capital earlier this year was a unanimous decision of the group board.

“Although the board’s decision on the appointment was unanimous, my decision to leave reflects my role and accountability as chairman of the board and the need to protect continuity of management, the strategy and, to the extent possible, the board,” Murray said in an ASX statement on Monday.

In 2017 Pahari was sanctioned by AMP after it found he acted inappropriately towards a female colleague at AMP Capital.

However, those findings did not stop the AMP board from elevating Pahari two months ago to the top executive post at the subsidiary.

As chairman of AMP Capital, Fraser copped a heavy public beating for his defence of the appointment.

Now, he and Murray have left it to their former board colleagues to patch together a fix for an internal culture that has functioned errantly for several decades.

Fraser’s departure also ends a potential conflict of interest that neither the AMP board nor any of the country’s financial regulators were prepared to address.

For more than a year he was the only director in the Australian banking industry to sit on the boards of two banks: AMP Bank and Judo Bank.

Even though each of these banks compete aggressively against each other for deposits in the retail market, the AMP board never explained publicly why it was willing to tolerate the conflict or how it was being managed.

The board also failed to disclose in the last two annual reports and at the 2019 annual meeting the fact that Fraser was a director of a company competing for AMP Bank’s deposit customers.

Responsibility for that rests squarely with every AMP director, including Murray’s successor as group chair, Debra Hazelton.

Hazelton has been a member of the AMP Bank board since the middle of last year, which means she’s had time to help the group get the disclosure right on Fraser’s perceived conflict.

Given AMP’s recent and rich record of non-disclosure and inaction, shareholders might be waiting an eon before the governance of the organisation secures normal footings.