EXCLUSIVE
The country’s richest banker is spending almost $1 million on renovations to his palatial mansion, as he presses ahead with plans to pay ordinary Australians $3 to access his own cash.
Commonwealth Bank boss Matt Comyn was criticized for being completely out of touch after Daily Mail Australia revealed how his bank was imposing a “dirty cash grab” on customers in the run-up to Christmas.
This week the bank bowed to widespread outrage and announced it will now delay the introduction of the controversial $3 withdrawal fee.
But he has so far resisted calls to eliminate the position entirely.
It comes amid ongoing criticism of Australia’s financial executives paying themselves huge salaries while the rest of the country struggles with the cost of living crisis.
Comyn, whose bank is the largest financial institution in more than a third of the country, remains the highest-paid executive of Australia’s “big four” banks, earning around $9 million last year, after receiving more than 10 .4 million dollars a year. before.
But while his clients struggle to make ends meet, Comyn has been spending big refurbishing his multimillion-dollar sandstone mansion in Sydney’s affluent inner-east.
The bank boss initially estimated that extensive renovation work at his $9.5 million property, in a wooded enclave overlooking Centennial Park in Randwick, would cost him about $920,153, according to the development application he submitted to his city hall.
Comyn has been criticized for staying out of touch with consumers and raising around $20 million while the rest of the country struggles to overcome a cost-of-living crisis.
CommBank boss Matt Comyn’s mansion remains covered in scaffolding as he invests almost $1 million to give the historic home in Sydney’s Randwick a major facelift.
The land surrounding the prized pile continues to be the subject of extensive landscaping work.
But as the renovation dragged on for almost two years, there is speculation that the amount could well have exceeded seven figures.
Comyn and his wife Lucy-Ellen have been hard at work upgrading all three levels of the mansion since November 2022, adding en-suite bathrooms to the prestigious home’s existing four bedrooms, a ground floor and extensive landscaping.
Workers were still busy mixing concrete at the luxury address on Thursday morning as the mansion remained surrounded by siding.
The couple snapped up the mansion for $3.3 million when Comyn was still the executive of the bank’s retail banking services group before both his value and salary soared.
The value of his home has already tripled and is expected to surpass the $10 million mark once all the ongoing work is finally completed.
Commonwealth Bank initially planned to move customers from its Complete Access account to a Smart Access account that included a $3 fee when withdrawing cash from a branch, post office or your phone from January 6.
After intense backlash, the bank said the change would be delayed by six months for customers who are “worse off under the new rate.”
Mr Comyn’s mansion already boasted an impressive backyard before its lengthy renovations.
The renovation works have been going on for two years and are still continuing
Two years after the facelift, there is still a lot of work to do on the mansion’s renovation.
Workers transport blocks of new sandstone to complement the historic sandstone already on site
The Albanian government criticized the move, with Housing Minister Clare O’Neil saying: “It doesn’t seem fair or appropriate and this is a huge bank making huge profits.” Come on, guys.’
‘It’s Christmas. “We don’t need this now,” he said. “This is not something the bank should do and we are asking them to reconsider.”
Deputy Treasurer and Financial Services Minister Stephen Jones also criticized Comyn Bank over the fee, calling it a “slap in the face” to loyal customers and “the worst Christmas present imaginable”.
“The Commonwealth Bank needs to reconsider this terrible decision,” he said. ‘This appears to be a tax on Australians demanding the right to use their cash.
And the government will not tolerate it. “We are working to ensure that Australians can continue to use cash if they wish.”
North Queensland federal MP Bob Katter described the new charge as “an act of defiance and contempt for the people of Australia”.
He said the bank was “fighting back” against the recent announcement that businesses selling essential goods and services such as food, medicine and fuel will be forced to accept cash from their customers unless they are granted a special exemption in early 2026. .
Sydney radio station 2GB unit host Chris O’Keefe was even more scathing, calling the cash grab “beyond obscene”.
Housing Minister Clare O’Neil criticized CommBank for its $3 withdrawal fee
The renovation was expected to cost about $940,000, but that was two years ago.
It is not clear when the long reform will finally be completed.
Boarding blocks much of the work from neighboring views.
“Charging a fee to access our own money is nothing more than a dirty little money grab,” he said. ‘How much blood do they want from us?’
He could barely contain his disbelief at the bank’s claim that the move “is part of our effort to provide Australians with the best banking experience”.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” O’Keefe said. ‘Are these people real?’
O’Keefe said assessing cash clients costs the financial giant around $400 million a year, but noted the bank made a huge profit of almost $10 billion last financial year after tax.
“It’s about improving outcomes,” O’Keefe said.
A Commonwealth Bank spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia that it “continues to offer customers free cash withdrawals from our national ATM network.”
They added that it would continue to “offer waivers of assisted withdrawal fees for customers who meet certain criteria, including certain types of pension recipients, those depositing $2,000 a month and those under 18.”
2GB’s Chris O’Keefe, seen with his wife Yvonne Sampson, has been one of the tariff’s leading critics.
“Our Streamline Basic account has no monthly account fees or assisted withdrawal fees and is available to customers who hold an eligible concession card.”
Angus Sullivan, group retail banking services executive at CommBank, said in a statement on Wednesday that the change had been “poorly communicated” to the bank’s customers.
“The changes that are occurring are such that approximately 90 percent of the customers we intend to move, and who we expect to be better off or the same, will be moved to the lower monthly rate account,” he said.
‘If those clients do not want to move, they can contact us to discuss their options.
‘For remaining customers, we are changing our approach and pausing the migration. Instead, we will contact these customers over the next six months to communicate appropriate product options.
‘The changes described above do not affect approximately nine million CommBank customers who do not have the Complete Access product.
‘Commonwealth Bank maintains the largest branch network. Each of our branches has free ATMs and we have a moratorium on regional branch closures until at least the end of 2026.’