It's been just over a week now since Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) released its results for the full 2021 financial year. Results that included a whopping $6 billion share buyback.
While the CBA share price gained 1.5% on that day, Wednesday 11 August, it slipped lower for the rest of the week.
CBA's share price continued to struggle this week. It closed 1.4% lower on Monday and dropped a sizeable 3.5% on Tuesday. That saw CommBank fall back to $99 per share, the first time since July that it's traded below the psychological $100 mark.
While a 3.5% fall is dramatic, it's worth noting that was also the ex-dividend day for the banks $2 per share final FY21 dividend payout. When stocks trade ex-dividend, it's common for the share price to fall by a similar amount to the payout.
Wednesday's 0.8% lift was a welcome break from the retracing trend. Though it failed to bring the CBA share price back into 3-figure range, with shares closing at $99.77, and then edging lower to close at $99.22 on Thursday.
At time of writing, CommBank is trading for $99.78 per share, up 0.5% in late afternoon trading.
Image Source: Commonwealth Bank
Legal headaches and BNPL expansion
On Monday, The Motely Fool reported that the Federal Court had ordered CommBank to "publish notices on its own website and newsroom that it had misled customers".
Under investigation by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), the court found that CBA had illegally overcharged interest for business overdraft clients 12,119 times. Customers were charged 34% annual interest rates rather than the 16% stipulated in documents.
CBA's share price looks to have gotten a lift on Wednesday after it announced the launch of its highly anticipated StepPay.
The buy now, pay later (BNPL) platform can be accessed by some 4 million CommBank customers, allowing them to pay for purchases in 4 instalments at any merchants that accept MasterCard.
Unlike most current BNPL offerings, CommBank will not charge merchants any extra BNPL fees beyond its standard card service fees.
CBA share price snapshot
Over the past 12 months the CBA share price is up $42. Over that same time the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is up 22%.
Year-to-date, CBA's share price has continued to outperform, up 19% in 2021.
