Commonwealth Bank of Australia

Overview

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia, known as CommBank or CBA, is Australia’s leading retail bank: a Sydney-based group founded in 1911 as a government-owned bank, separated from Australia’s central banking functions in 1959, and fully privatised by 1996. (Reserve Bank of Australia) Today it is one of Australia’s “big four” banks alongside ANZ, NAB and Westpac, a group accounting for about 70% of owner-occupier home loans. (Canstar) At the end of F2026, in June 2026, the group held about AUD 1.5 trillion in total assets and led Australian retail banking with 25.4% of home lending and 26.4% of household deposits. (Morningstar DBRS)

A government bank that became two banks

The Commonwealth Bank was created in 1911 as a government-owned trading and savings bank, and it was the only bank supported by a Commonwealth Government guarantee. (Reserve Bank of Australia) At first its only central-banking function was acting as banker to the Commonwealth Government, but war finance, banknote issue and economic management steadily added central-banking responsibilities. (Reserve Bank of Australia) By 1924 it had taken full responsibility for issuing Australia’s banknotes, and the Commonwealth Bank Act 1945 and Banking Act 1945 formally gave it responsibility for monetary policy, interest rates, banking policy and exchange rate control. (Reserve Bank of Australia)

That dual role eventually became untenable, because the bank was simultaneously a regulator of other banks and their competitor. (Reserve Bank of Australia) The Reserve Bank Act 1959 therefore split the institution in two: the original bank was renamed the Reserve Bank of Australia and began operating as the nation’s central bank on 14 January 1960, while the newly created Commonwealth Banking Corporation carried on as a trading bank. (Reserve Bank of Australia) This is the distinction most short profiles blur: today’s CommBank is not the old central bank renamed, but the commercial successor created by that split, while the Reserve Bank inherited the central-banking lineage.

Privatisation, scale and the mortgage engine

Privatisation began in earnest with the first share tranche in 1991, an enterprise already operating in a commercial environment. (Reserve Bank of Australia) The progressive sale, in three tranches totalling AUD 8.1 billion, was the largest finance-sector privatisation in Australia’s 1990s program. (Reserve Bank of Australia) It also democratised share ownership in a measurable way: the bank had 210,000 shareholders when first floated in 1991, then the largest register of any listed Australian company, and that register grew to 420,000 with the third sell-down in 1996. (Reserve Bank of Australia)

The privatised bank kept its retail dominance. Morningstar DBRS, confirming CBA’s long-term issuer rating at AA (high) with a stable trend, described a dominant domestic franchise in Australia and New Zealand, particularly in retail banking, underpinned by a conservative risk profile, strong capitalisation and resilient earnings. (Morningstar DBRS) Beyond home lending and deposits, the group held 19.4% of business lending and 22.3% of business deposits in Australia at the end of F2026. (Morningstar DBRS) Net profit after tax from continuing operations rose 8% year on year to AUD 10.9 billion in F2026, with statutory return on equity improving to 13.9%. (Morningstar DBRS) Home loans were 69% of gross loans at the end of F2026. (Morningstar DBRS)

Brands, a shared licence, leadership and scrutiny

In New Zealand the group operates under the ASB brand, where it held 21.3% of home loans and 18.9% of customer deposits at the end of F2026. (Morningstar DBRS) In Australia, CommBank acquired Bankwest in 2008 and launched its digital home-loan brand, Unloan, in 2022, and it also holds a 45% stake in Colonial First State and a 45% stake in Lendi Group. (Canstar) One practical detail matters for customers and is rarely spelled out in company profiles: Bankwest and CommBank share a single banking licence, so the government’s Financial Claims Scheme protection of up to AUD 250,000 applies per account holder per licensed institution, not per brand. (Canstar)

Leadership changed under pressure. Matt Comyn took over as chief executive in April 2018, after his predecessor Ian Narev departed shortly after the AUSTRAC allegations became public. (NPR) In June 2018 the bank agreed to a AUD 700 million civil penalty, then the largest in Australian corporate history, settling claims it had breached anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws by being late in reporting 53,000 transactions over AUD 10,000 between 2012 and 2015. (NPR) Comyn said the breaches were not deliberate, apologised to the community, and called the agreement a clear acknowledgement of the bank’s failures. (NPR) In October 2025, chair Paul O’Malley told the annual meeting that Comyn would remain chief executive for at least the next three years, by which point a seven-year tenure would extend toward a decade. (Reuters)

What this profile does not claim

This profile does not resolve a discrepancy on privatisation: the Reserve Bank Bulletin’s table lists sale years as 1991, 1993, 1996 and 1997, while its narrative describes three tranches ending in 1996, so the 1997 entry is left flagged rather than explained away. It does not claim the Bankwest purchase price or the terms of the 2000 Colonial merger, because those details were available only in snippets during this research pass and were not verified from a source read in full. Market shares and profit figures are as reported by Morningstar DBRS for F2026. The current status of the 45% stakes in Colonial First State and Lendi Group beyond the October 2026 Canstar update was not re-verified.