- CommBank CEO defends share price plunge
The Commonwealth Bank’s chief executive Matt Comyn has defended its share price plunge – despite a record profit.
Shares in Australia’s biggest bank and home lender plunged by 3.5 per cent on Wednesday morning to $172.59 despite CBA announcing a record, full-year cash profit of $10.3billion for 2024-25.
Investors reacted badly to news its cash profit had grown by four per cent, despite it meeting market expectations.
That was also the day the Commonwealth Bank announced it had signed an agreement with OpenAI to bring artificial intelligence to banking transactions and detect scams.
Since then, the share price has continued to bleed, sinking to $167.20 – marking a 5.6 per cent plunge in five days, wiping off more than $15billion from its market capitalisation.
While more than 800,000 Australians own Commonwealth Bank shares directly, more than 10million own shares indirectly via their superannuation.
‘Of course, we’re conscious of share price performance … more than 10 million Australians own the Commonwealth Bank, either directly or indirectly,’ he told the ABC.
But he declined to say if he believed Commonwealth Bank shares were overvalued after they hit an all-time high of $185 in June.
The Commonwealth Bank ‘s chief executive Matt Comyn has defended its share price plunge – despite a record profit
‘From our perspective, we focused on the things we can control, which is trying to do a great job serving our customers,’ he said.
Mr Comyn was given a $7.018million remuneration package during the last financial year, comprising a base salary of $2.85million plus bonuses.
He is in charge of a bank with more than 18million customers and 55,000 staff.
