Matt Comyn: Read awkward question Commonwealth Bank’s CEO on $10.4MILLION a year was asked during staff meeting

A Commonwealth Bank worker has dared asked the boss why his salary is so much more generous than more lowly staff.

The question was directed at CBA chief executive Matt Comyn during Thursday’s staff town hall session and was then picked up by social media as resentment grew over the bank’s record profit of $10.2 billion for the last financial year.

‘According to The Australian Financial Review your take-home pay increased by almost 50 per cent,’ a staff member wrote in the question directed at Mr Comyn, who pocketed a $10.4 million pay packet with nearly $8 million in bonuses.

‘Why are you entitled to this large increase while the rest of us get short-changed to a maximum of 5.25 per cent?’

It’s not known whether Mr Comyn replied to the question during the meeting but he was forced to justify his pay during a separate Thursday interview on Sky News.

Commonwealth Bank CEO Matt Comyn was asked why by one of his worker’s why his salary had doubled while lower ranked employees were getting a much more more measly increase

Mr Comyn admitted to interviewer Ross Greenwood that he was taking home a huge amount but said it reflected the bank’s stellar performance.

‘The way I and other members of my leadership team are remunerated are based on very clear performance metrics that are set over multiple years,’ Mr Comyn said.

‘And in this case those performance metrics were exceeded and the remuneration that is paid is a consequence of that.’ 

The Aussie Corporate Instagram account, which shared the Town Hall question, was less impressed.

‘Breaking records and employees’ spirits in 2023,’ the account wrote as it accused the bank of having ‘ongoing layoffs’ and ‘minimal payrises’.

Others note the bank’s huge profits were coming on the back of 12 rapid interest rate hikes.

‘F*** yeh can’t wait to lay down tonight in my mortgage crippled house dreaming of how much money they made,’ one person wrote.

The question put Mr Comyn on the spot over the discrepancies in the take home pay between himself and other CBA staff

Another comments simply read: ‘Disgusting’. 

The windfall result also earnt a slapdown from Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary Sally McManus.

 ‘The CBA just announced a record profit. Price gouging much?’ she tweeted.

The Commonwealth Bank has offered staff a 17 per cent wage increase over four years, The Australian reported on Thursday.

‘We have tabled an offer and we communicated that to our people of 12.75 per cent over three years,’ Mr Comyn said. 

‘I think it’s a reasonable position. We hope it will be supported.’

But Finance Sector Union national secretary Julia Angrisano called the offer a ‘slap in the face’.

‘Their proposed pay rise would be a pay cut in real terms, given inflation,’ she said. 

‘CEO Matt Comyn’s pay increase of 50 per cent to $10.4million is a slap in the face to CBA workers who delivered the profit that drove this increase. CBA needs to reward its staff with industry-leading pay increases.’

The Commonwealth Bank has announced a record profit of $10.2 billion for the last financial year

Professional poker player and author Crispin Rovere, who was previously in dispute with Westpac after they froze his account, has become an outspoken critic of banks, and was scathing in his commentary on the Commonwealth’s Bank’s results.

‘Commonwealth Bank used to be a national service. It has just delivered a record $10.5 billion profit, entirely by jacking up the price of loans over and above increased interest rates,’ he tweeted.

‘Padding this out is removal of ATMs, closure of rural branches, forcing customers cashless while still collecting obscene merchant fees from digital transactions. Not a single dollar has been generated through improved competitiveness, service or product innovation.

‘Commbank execs are just coasting, collecting huge bonuses off the backs of struggling mortgage payers while adding no value whatsoever.’

Speaking to Nine newspapers Mr Comyn denied the bank’s profits came at the expense of its customers.

‘It is not a choice between profitability or doing a good job for customers; you can do both,’ he said on an analyst call following the earnings announcement.

‘Every business, certainly over the medium or long term, has to do both. If you’re not doing a good job by your customers, you’re not able to grow, and you can’t possibly generate sustainable returns.’

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