Commonwealth Bank Launches Integrated Economic Crime Operating Model

Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s new Economic Crime operating model takes effect on 24 August 2026, bringing its Fraud, Scams and Financial Crime teams together under a more integrated structure.

The bank first announced the change on 30 July. It said the model is designed to connect economic-crime capabilities that have traditionally been organised across separate functions, reflecting the way criminal networks increasingly operate across fraud, scams, cyber activity and financial crime at the same time.

CommBank said the reorganisation is intended to help it connect signals across those areas, identify emerging threats earlier and respond faster. The change is therefore operational rather than a new regulatory obligation: it alters how the bank organises its internal economic-crime functions and how those teams work together.

New Scam Prevention Officer role

As part of the operating-model change, CommBank appointed James Roberts as its first Scam Prevention Officer. The bank said the broader structure will more closely connect staff working on fraud, scams and financial crime prevention.

Chief Operations Officer Emma Bunnell said economic crime is increasingly interconnected and that the bank is seeking to strengthen its ability to identify threats and act more quickly. The model becomes effective on 24 August, creating a single operating framework across several financial-crime-related functions.

For banks and compliance teams, the development reflects a wider shift toward combining fraud, scam and financial-crime signals rather than treating them as isolated control domains. That can be particularly relevant where the same customer, account or payment activity presents both fraud and AML risk indicators.