The year might be winding down in the lead-up to Christmas, but the heat is intensifying for Australia’s big four banks.
Treasurer Wayne Swan is putting the finishing touches on his plans to rein in the banks by creating more competition through the creation of a “fifth pillar”.
Mr Swan is expected to take a a five-point plan to cabinet today, which will effectively give greater government support to credit unions and building societies as the big four banking chiefs prepare to face next week’s senate banking inquiry.
The proposal is designed to use greater competition to force Westpac, ANZ, NAB and the Commonwealth to give customers a better deal on controversial exit and establishment fees.
Under the plan, borrowers could also be given easier ways to switch bank accounts through the use of a simple single form rather than wade through a web of fine print and red tape.
Mr Swan also wants to crack down on “price signalling” between banks on the size and pace of interest rate rises over and above the Reserve Bank’s official cash rate.
However, the strategy is high stakes given previous failures by the Treasurer to rein in banks on fees and out-of-cycle rate rises.
Calling for choice
The consumer group Choice is urging borrowers not to rely on greater regulation as it launches its “compare, switch and ditch” campaign.
It says a new money comparison website will make it easier for people to compare products, choose a new provider, and switch banks.
Richard Lloyd from Choice says a lot of money can be saved by switching savings accounts, mortgages and credit cards.
“There’s a really unprecedented amount of consumer anger out there,” he said.
“People want to see action – the Government knows that, the banks know that.
“What we’re trying to do today is to say to consumers, turn that anger into action and help yourselves.”
Mr Lloyd says if enough people switch, it will really start to rattle the major banks.
“We want consumers to take their revenge against any bank that they feel has treated them unfairly or isn’t giving them a good deal,” he said.
“We’re going to give them the tools to do that and it’s very, very easy to compare the market on our website.
“We hope as many consumers as possible will do that, because more mobile consumers moving around in the market will itself help drive competition.”
Crossbench MPs and the Opposition have been pushing the Government to crack down on anti-competitive behaviour in the sector, such as price signalling, after all the four big banks put their interest rates up.
The Federal Opposition says the banking shake-up needs to fix some of the problems caused by the Government’s wholesale funding guarantee.
Many smaller lenders say it has been harder to compete against the big four banks because the Government’s guarantee favoured larger banks.
Opposition finance spokesman Andrew Robb says that issue needs to be fixed.
“The botching in many respects of the Government’s guarantees that they put in place during the global financial crisis led to the departure of so much competition in the banking sector – competition that had been built up over 25 years,” he said.
Mr Lloyd is hoping the Government will provide real options for people that will help them to save money.
“We’d like to see it much easier for consumers to switch. We’ll make it easy by giving people information, but there’s still too much legwork for people to have to do,” he said.
“So a switching package that makes that easy would be good.
“We’d like to see a crackdown on unfair fees and charges across the board and we’d like to see the Government take action to inject real competition back into the market.”
