If you don't think so then check in with Andrew Thorburn and Brian Hartzer. Thorburn resigned as the chief executive of the National Australia Bank back in February after his performance, and that of NAB chairman, Ken Henry, was criticised by financial services royal commissioner, Kenneth Hayne. Henry also resigned.

Hartzer, the embattled chief executive officer of Westpac, now appears almost certain to have to stand down in the wake of Australia's worst ever "dirty money" scandal.

It has been alleged the bank, Australia's second largest with more than $87 billion in assets at the start of the year, breached anti-money laundering laws an estimated 23 million times between 2013 and last September.

The allegations, made in court documents lodged with the Federal Court by the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (Austrac) involve 19.5 million international funds transactions both in and out of the country with a value of about $11 billion.

The Westpac revelations, which could theoretically generate penalties of up to $400 trillion - many times the net worth of the bank, came on the same day NAB agreed to pay out $49.5 million to settle a class action brought against it by Slater and Gordon on behalf of people it had sold "junk" personal and credit card insurance.

Westpac's breaches dwarf the offences admitted by the Commonwealth Bank which resulted in an agreement with the regulator to pay a $700 million penalty earlier this year by an order of magnitude.

It is understood the company is keen to reach a settlement along similar lines with pundits predicting a fine of up to $2 billion. Such a penalty would mean Westpac would break CBA's record for the largest civil penalty in Australian corporate history.

While it is serious money in anybody's language, $2 billion is still less than 30 per cent of the $6.85 billion profit Hartzer announced for Westpac at the start of the month.

CBA will, of course, be watching what happens with great interest and can be expected to raise a major hue and cry if it feels its' competitor is getting better terms than it did.

The most significant development, and the one that sets the Westpac case apart from CBA, is the mounting pressure on Hartzer to go.

Even the Prime Minister, who learnt the hard way there was no mileage to be gained by going soft on the banks, was calling for blood on Thursday with reports he believed the board should be "considering" the CEO's position.

Austrac CEO, Nicole Rose, had already upped the ante by saying there was no way the breaches, some of which may have helped fund child pornography rings, could have come about by unhappy accident.

"These contraventions are the result of systemic failures in its (Westpac's) control environment, indifference by the senior management and inadequate oversight by the board," she said.

This phrasing suggests that if and when Hartzer takes his golden parachute at least one or two board members may follow.

This, if nothing else, should concentrate the minds of senior bank executives and leaders on the need to pay at least as much attention to due diligence and corporate responsibility as they have previously paid to profit maximisation.

When the penalties are this severe if they can't do the job the shareholders will demand they be replaced by people who can.