Key planks of the banking industry's reform plan, including a promise to name and shame bankers who break the rules, are taking longer to implement than expected.
Amid last year's political storm over banker misconduct, banks unveiled a six-point plan designed to rebuild public trust in an industry that was staring down a royal commission if Labor had won the election.
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Banks review staff bonus system
Plagued by scandals stemming from staff bonuses and commissions Australia's banks commission a review of their internal practices.
Banks had aimed to implement the changes by the end of this year, but a progress report on Friday said there had been "slippage" in the timetable of key reforms.
The report by Ian McPhee, a former Commonwealth auditor-general, said three of the six initiatives announced were behind schedule, while another one was under "time pressure."
The remaining two initiatives – a beefing up of whistleblower policies and improvements in dealing with customer complaints – were tracking in line or ahead of expectations.
The delays were occurring in areas where banks needed others – including arms of government – to make progress, he said.
One initiative that is likely to be delayed is the creation of a public register of bankers who had engaged in misconduct, which Mr McPhee said would involve complicated legal issues and could depend on government legislation. As a result, banks were setting up a program to run background checks on employees, to be adopted by banks from the middle of this year.
A push to strengthen the banking code of practice was also taking longer than expected because of various government reviews into related topics.
A commitment to strengthen the Australian Securities and Investments Commission is also dependent on government, which is changing how the regulator is funded.
A final aspect of the reforms that could be delayed is its review of how frontline bankers are paid, which delivered an issues paper this week.
While the banker pay review is currently running to schedule, Mr McPhee said the issues here were "complex, challenging and of considerable interest to a range of stakeholders", and there was "heightened timing risk" surrounding the December 2017 deadline.
Mr McPhee added it was "encouraging" that banks had also taken some steps aiming to restore trust, such as Westpac last year removing incentives for tellers who referred customers to others selling products.