Specious arguments from big banks need to be taken down - Habilis

In a cross submission to the market study, Habilis NZ, a wellbeing and social investment consultancy, says the agreed model is needed so there is a common understanding of both the problems and the levers that can be manipulated to create a functioning market in personal banking services.

This will also provide a platform for the refutation of the more outlandish claims of the Australian banks, as it will allow the various hypotheses put forward by their economists and consultants to be tested.

Habilis says as the commission’s Preliminary Issues Paper notes, there is prima facie evidence the Australian banks are making excessive profits, well beyond any reasonably expected return on capital, which means billions of dollars are being siphoned out of the pockets of New Zealanders to provide the undue enrichment of predominantly offshore investors.

“Given the wide-ranging social and economic impacts of this pernicious behaviour and the interplay with the regulatory failures that have led to it, the low-key approach of the commission makes little sense.