Australia's CBA chief blasts MP for 'misinformation' on card payment charges

By Byron Kaye

SYDNEY (Reuters) -The CEO of Australia's biggest bank accused a member of parliament of spreading misinformation and labelled a proposed tax on big company profits as meritless, pushing back against what he called "insidious populism" in relation to the corporate sector.

The testimony by Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) CEO Matt Comyn at a routine parliamentary hearing on Thursday marked a break from the deferential tone that Australian bank bosses have generally taken since they began the compulsory appearances in 2017 when the industry was mired in scandal.

Asked about point-of-sale surcharges that businesses charge Australians who pay for goods with debit and credit cards, Comyn denied the fees were a way for banks to grow profit. The Reserve Bank of Australia has said it may ban payment surcharges, but Comyn said claims banks generated A$4 billion ($2.72 billion) a year from them were untrue.

"This sort of continuing, often fact-free rhetoric that's being published more broadly is very damaging," Comyn said.

He was being asked about the fees by a lawmaker who held up a A$5 note in one hand and a credit card with "A$5.08" written on it in the other, referring to the price of a coffee.

"It is really eroding trust in institutions. That's weakening, driving a fundamental distrust across citizens," added Comyn, who started as CEO in 2018.

"You must be seeing it. We are seeing it. I don't think the right thing is to position things when they're factually incorrect, as I believe that you are."

Referring to the politician's props, Comyn added: "It's not a like-for-like comparison."

Asked about a policy proposed a day earlier by the left-leaning Greens party, which has 12 of Australia's 76 senators, to raise taxes on big banks and miners to collect an additional A$514 billion over 10 years, Comyn called the proposal "an example of insidious populism".

The policy seemed based on a "false dichotomy that there is something unjust and that profit has been unjustifiably extracted and there's a reason that this should not (be so)", he said.

It was an example of "performative policies that are designed to attract attention, that lack rigour and merit", he said.

"A number of them rely on assumptions that are just demonstrably false."

($1 = 1.4732 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Byron Kaye; Editing by Miral Fahmy and Jamie Freed)