DL-S appearing at the ABC to discuss the ANZ-Suncorp takeover.
Steve Austin at the ABC: Explain this one to me: how does this improve banking competition?
DL-S: It doesn’t. It does the opposite. I think that’s pretty obvious. You’re reducing the number of banks in the market. That was used by the ACCC to initially block the takeover.
The overturning of it by the competition tribunal, which is a gaggle of eminences that sit above the ACCC, is a very under-resourced and opaque group of elite people that have made the wrong decision.
Steve Austin: So you do think they’ve made the wrong decision?
DL-S: Unquestionably.
Steve Austin: What’s the point of the ACCC if this little known Australian competition tribunal can overturn their detailed decisions or announcements?
DL-S: That’s really a very pertinent question. The ACCC’s got a $30 million budget and immense resources to look into these things with all sorts of powers to summon commercial in-confidence data and other things that we don’t get to look at.
The tribunal that sits above it is severely under-resourced and has no secretariat. It’s just a few judges and boffins appointed by the federal government, and they’ve bought a number of arguments made by ANZ to overturn the decision, all of which look spurious to me…
Steve Austin: How might this affect customers?
DL-S: To the extent that it reduces competition everybody will pay higher fees and higher rates…
Much more here:
