This was last year.....what is the Government doing? Or not doing?  Royal Commission into the 17 Rogue Lenders including the FOUR MAJORS is extremely urgent.....long overdue.  How many inquiries do we have to have?

Labor Senator renews call for royal commission into banks after Timbercorp inquiry

Updated 13 Nov 2014, 8:02am

PHOTO: Labor Senator Sam Dastyari says evidence given at Timbercorp inquiry shows the need for a royal commission into banks. (ABC News: Sam Ikin)

RELATED STORY: Investors call for compassion over Timbercorp debts

RELATED STORY: Senate inquiry demands royal commission into Commonwealth Bank, ASIC

MAP: Melbourne 3000

Federal Labor Senator Sam Dastyari says evidence at an inquiry into failed agribusiness Timbercorp strengthens calls for a royal commission into the banking sector.

Timbercorp managed more than 100,000 hectares of plantations across Australia before its collapse in 2009, including around 40,000 ha of blue gums in Victoria's south-west.

The ANZ bank provided funds for Timbercorp Finance, which then offered loans to investors - hundreds of whom are facing bankruptcy.

A former Timbercorp employee yesterday told a Senate committee he believed Timbercorp had traded while insolvent, and implied ANZ knew Timbercorp was close to collapse.

Senator Dastyari, the committee chairman, said a judicial inquiry was needed to investigate the claim that ANZ knew the scheme had severe problems.

"It is an incredible piece of evidence, and quite explosive," he told ABC News.

"When you have senior executives of a company [Timbercorp] talk about how the ANZ bank was pumping several hundred million into an organisation that was going down ... it is concerning, and it should be concerning," he said.

"There needs to be a proper judicial investigation of all these matters, and frankly the best way of doing that is a royal commission."

Mr Dastyari said the evidence had been damning.

"The ANZ bank has a social, moral and corporate responsibility, that quite frankly it has not been meeting," he said.

ANZ says allegations of wrongdoing not proven

ANZ said courts had dismissed court action brought by Timbercorp investors, and no allegations of wrongdoing had been substantiated.

The bank said it viewed the managed investment scheme as financially viable until just before it collapsed, and said it was still owed about $200 million from entities related to the Timbercorp group.

ANZ head of corporate affairs, Gerard Brown, said the bank would make a full statement to the committee next month.

"I would emphasise that will be a comprehensive opening statement ... by the deputy CEO of the bank," Mr Brown said.

"I would like to acknowledge the seriousness of the issues that the committee is hearing.

"We will go to the heart of these matters."

A Senate report handed down earlier this year called for a royal commission, after Commonwealth Bank customers lost hundreds of millions of dollars when their money was placed in high-risk investments without their knowledge.