"I am really looking forward to taking over Australia's leading bank at a time of rapid change in the local and global economies, continuing the focus on transforming the Group to become Australia 's finest financial services organization and continuing to move that aspiration selectively into Asia."

As anyone who follows my scribbling knows, I have a beef with the CBA, and even posted an open letter to the former CEO. With that in mind I find it amazing that Mr. Narev is dreaming about the Asian market.

I live in Asia - China to be exact, and if there is one thing I already know about the Commonwealth Bank, it is that its ability to see beyond the four walls of its Australian Offices makes it highly unlikely that it will be able to serve an Asian Market that well.

'Ability to see beyond the four walls of its Australian Offices' is my euphemism for the Bank's inability to pull its head out of its *cough*.

'Parochial' might be another good way of describing the Bank's operating procedures or perhaps, 'trapped in the unintended consequences of its own processes' might be an even better description.

As I have previously written, I can't be sure if the staff of the Commonwealth Bank are Malicious, incompetent, untrustworthy or simply 'outsourced' but if a statement made by analyst John Mott has any credibility Mr. Narev may be looking at cost savings through re-engineering of internal processes, which itself is a euphemism for 'Staff Purge'. From what I can surmise from my dealings with the Commonwealth Bank through its 'non-secure' Secure Netbank System, the staff that one communicates with through that system are most probably 'outsourced' staff living in countries other than Australia.

An August 2010 Article stated at that time that the Commonwealth Bank's strong performance was a reflection of [..] strong staff incentives for customer service. My 'living in Asia' experience of Commonwealth Bank customer service is that the Commonwealth Bank hasn't got a clue of what life is like in Asia for ordinary people. Then again, I doubt that their intended market share will include common ordinary people.

Let me give you an example of what I meant above when I said things like 'unintended consequences of its own processes' and pulling their heads out of their arses. (Sorry! I meant to write *cough*).

The Commonwealth Bank decided that although I've never had any problems with my credit card, that they would make it more 'secure', and instituted a system that has locked me out from using it.

That of itself however is not the problem. In order to punish me for complaining about 'unjustifiable application of fees', the bank, immediately after refunding said fees, promptly suspended my credit card account on the pretext that my card had been used suspiciously. Here is where the issue of competence comes to play. The last transaction was at least a month old.

The bank was already aware that I did not have their latest security service - the TOKENCODE - and that I had no landline on which to contact them. (They refused to deal over a mobile phone.) I was told that I must answer an email sent to my registered email address, but that address is connected to the sites.google network and is therefore blocked in China.

They have acknowledged through Netbank email my advice that I can't access that account but refuse to contact me by my alternate email address or my mobile telephone number because - wait for it - This is the way they do business.

I can not for the life of me imagine a Chinese businessman's - scrub that - any Chinese person's reaction to the Commonwealth Bank Staff attitude. It simply does not compute in the Chinese Mind.

At least in relation to my problems, the Commonwealth Bank exhibits the behavior of a rat trapped in a maze; one of its own making.

The Bank was able to ignore its own privacy policies and ask my sister in Australia questions about the use of my card and my current location in the world, but it can't seem to ignore any of its other policies.

Well - no matter!

My account is suspended so I can't use it! No problem! I also cannot pay the $700 on the card either because in suspending the account they removed it from my netbank and so I cannot do a transfer to clear the account. They told me to use BPAY but the bank system requires a TOKENCODE for that too. I guess they expect me to hop a plane home.

If the Commonwealth Bank Australia intends to do business in Asia, then I think it is going to need to know a lot more about 'providing customer service' and 'dealing with foreign realities on the ground' than they do at present. But I seriously doubt that they care about that, for if there is one thing that has been obvious for a long time with all the banks, it is that they are a law unto themselves.

In contract law, one cannot be held liable for a contract, and indeed no contract exists, where the full content and conditions of which were not provided them. In Contract Law one must be fully cognizant of all conditions and penalties applicable within the contract.

But the Banks of course all use a standard 'catch all' condition similar to that used by the Chinese government in application of its laws. The 'catch all' allows them to make any decision they want at any time to override all previous agreements and conditions.

Hence it is that they can tell you (as they did in the early 90's) that using an ATM card would be free; then that the first dozen uses would be free; then that transacting over the counter when there was an ATM outside would attract a fee; then that you have a monthly fee to pay for your ATM card use. I've been through all these stages and no one ever asked me if I agree to the changes made. Likewise with the credit card. (I should point out that back in the early 90's my employer switched to putting our salaries in the bank and required that I change banks to accommodate the process.)

I have never had a problem with my credit card; never had anyone misuse my account and never found myself unable to pay for anything using it. Until late 2010 after I returned to China!

The Bank decided that my credit card was insecure and so banned me from using it. The Commonwealth bank, like the others, operates by their own laws which supersede or render ineffective the laws which might apply to lesser organizational entities.

In short, as Mr. Wayne Swan, the Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer of Australia recently intimated, the big banks do not provide customers with 'active choices'.

How will the Asian community view a bank which operates using minimal and/or outsourced staff, whose only incentives are related to how much the bank can charge the customer, and whose operational procedures tie them up in the law of unintended consequences, (no landline phone - no access to email account) but without the power, authority or incentive to correct the flaws of the laws?

The way I see it, with my account suspended I have no monthly fees to pay! No debt to pay since the bank itself is preventing that! I am happy enough with the situation!

My experience in Asia tells me that while Asians may know how to put up with corruption what they don't know how to deal with is Western Stupidity.

It confounds me too!

Good luck Mr. Narev! You are probably going to need it! Perhaps you would like to read the companion piece to this article titled: China, and Western Ignorance.

Or read about Ancient Chinese Culture alive and well in the 21st Century destroying people's lives.

R.P. BenDedek
Email:rpbendedek@hotmail.com

R.P.BenDedek (pseudonym) is the Author of 'The King's Calendar: The Secret of Qumran' (www.kingscalendar.com ), and is a guest columnist and stand-in Editor at Magic City Morning Star News. An Australian, he has been teaching Conversational English in China since 2003.

Writers Journal Kingscalendar

"The King's Calendar" is a chronological study of the historical books of the Bible (Kings and Chronicles), Josephus, Seder Olam Rabbah, and the (Essene) Damascus Document of The Dead Sea Scrolls.