Commonwealth Bank is dropping its credit card plus (CCP) and personal loan protection products before regulatory changes render them "no longer economically viable", an inquiry heard.

The regulator pushed CBA into refunding $10 million to 64,000 unemployed and therefore ineligible customers who were sold CCP, the financial services royal commission heard on Monday.

Senior counsel assisting the commission Rowena Orr QC said CBA reached that customer number for its remediation program after being "pushed and pushed and pushed" by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

Senior CBA executive Clive van Horen said that characterisation was a little unfair.

"CBA certainly did take too long to arrive at the end answer," he said.

The royal commission heard CBA knew in October 2015 the problems went beyond CCP and that loan protection products (LPP) for personal and home loans were being sold to people who did not meet the employment eligibility criteria.

But CBA did not formally notify ASIC as required under the Corporations Act until two years later, and then after the regulator raised concerns about why it was alerted to the problem by a customer and not the bank.

Mr van Horen said the bank knew similar problems could occur but not how many customers could be affected.

"Again we should have done it earlier. I'm not going to deny that for one second."

Commissioner Kenneth Hayne QC queried whether CBA's response involved a series of unfortunate events.

"The alternative is whether it is open to me to conclude that CBA swept the problem aside in the hope it would go away," Mr Hayne said.

Mr van Horen said that was not the case, although he acknowledged the bank had been too slow on numerous occasions.

"I can say with conviction that CBA certainly in all of my engagement on this matter and everything I've observed from investigating, had no intention to sweep the matter aside or pretend it didn't exist."

Mr van Horen said CBA made a number of errors of judgment, including prioritising the CCP problems before it looked at the issues with LPP.

CBA this month announced it will refund $16 million to 140,000 customers who took out personal loan protection and home loan protection.

It is also dropping its CPP and personal loan protection, but keeping the home loan insurance product.

Regulatory changes will require a four-day gap between someone opening a credit card account and taking out insurance to cover the repayments if they are unable to work.

Referring to bank documents, Ms Orr said CBA's view was that the CCP product would no longer be economically viable and there was expected to be a similar economic outcome for the personal loan product.

Mr van Horen said the introduction of deferred sales will have an impact on sales volumes and therefore revenues "and the commercial equation", but said the decision was also influenced by the sale of CBA's CommInsure business to global life insurer AIA.

He also denied CBA tried to minimise the extent of problems with CCP in its communciations with ASIC.

Australian Associated Press