And who can blame it? Via FT Lex:
Investors can no longer shrug off the turmoil in Australian banking. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has laid criminal cartel charges against ANZ Bank, as well as Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and several senior executives. The “four pillar” system that permitted a lending oligopoly has turned from smooth coastal highway into a washboard track bumping through the outback.
The policy was first expressed in the 1990s. Limiting mergers between the largest banks was seen as a way to preserve competition. Over time, instead of protecting consumers, it has exposed them to price gouging. Profits constituted 2.9 per cent of Australia’s gross domestic product in 2016, according to data from think-tank The Australia Institute. That is the highest proportion in the world, slightly ahead of China and more than three times the same figure for the UK.
