The Commonwealth Bank does not currently have advice files for more than one in 10 of the cases registered for its compensation scheme for victims of dodgy financial advice.
A CBA update on Tuesday said that of the more than 9000 cases registered under its open advice review program, some 1050 cases had "no advice file that is currently available for assessment".
The report also said the review had paid out $2 million in compensation so far, with 171 offers made under the scheme, which was launched after a scathing Senate inquiry in 2014.
While CBA was still trying to track down some files from advisers who had since left the bank, Tuesday's update from financial consultants Promontory said 970,000 customer files had been catalogued and the process of file retrieval was "largely complete".
It was "more than likely" there would remain a "material" number of cases where it did not have a file, the report said.
It is understood CBA expects the number of cases without a file to fall as it contacts former advisers, and some of the customers without a relevant file may have wrongly registered for the program.
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However, the figure also highlights the significant problems with record keeping that affected CBA's planning businesses, which has prompted the bank to develop a process for assessing customers where there is little or no documentation.
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"It is likely that a material number of cases in the program will have very limited or no advice documentation to assess, meaning that a different process will need to be applied by the bank to complete an assessment," the report said.
This includes trawling through transaction data to determine if customers may have paid fees to an adviser, or, in other cases, contacting customers to tell them there is no record of them receiving advice.
CBA's open advice review program allows any customer of Commonwealth Financial Panning and Financial Wisdom between 2003 and 2012 to have their advice reviewed.
The bank said 9346 cases had registered, and it had issued an assessment in 1937 of these cases.
Senators who had closely followed the process expressed surprise at the high number of cases where the bank did not currently have an advice file.
To have 9000 registered cases, and to be unable to find the files for 1000 of them is astonishing.
Labor senator Sam Dastyari"To have 9000 registered cases, and to be unable to find the files for 1000 of them is astonishing," Labor senator Sam Dastyari said.
"I am looking forward to Ian Narev's explanation, but, in the meantime, I despair for Commonwealth Bank's customers who just want this farce to be over."
National senator John Williams said it seemed like a "high number" of cases where the bank did not currently have a relevant file.
"It seems to me to be a large number. In my experience with the banks, they are usually very pedantic with their filing," he said.
CBA had previously told a Senate inquiry there were several problems in its filing systems within its planning businesses, including "poor record keeping".
Financial Wisdom customer files were kept with advisers throughout the country and when advisers left Financial Wisdom, the licensee did not keep copies of their files, a CBA submission said in 2014.
