Bank corporate governance in Australia: Is there a conflict between the existing corporate culture and the Anglo-Saxon model of corporate governance?

This article identifies bank governance deficit as a contributor to the misconduct identified in the recent Banking Royal Commission into misconduct in banks, superannuation, and financial services in Australia. Literature review has been conducted to identify the key issues of theory, frameworks, sources of corporate governance (CG), CG models, board skills, and age as factors in CG. The analysis finds that some of the governance requirements are well in place in Australia, the apparent failure of CG not being able to constrain misconduct in banks remains a puzzle. We question whether Anglo-Saxon model of short-termism has permeated bank organization culture beyond fixation. We suggest various opportunities for further research to try to narrow the gap between governance deficit and conduct in the banking sector.