A leading professor from the University of NSW has told the Senate the ACCC should force Commonwealth Bank and Westpac to sell their respective arms BankWest and St George to increase competition in the sector.
UNSW Associate Professor Frank Zumbo told the Senate that it was not too late for the ACCC to ask the Federal Court to order the sales, on the grounds that the takeovers have lessened competition in the banking sector.
”In a very short space of time, just 18 months, we have lost two of the big banks’ biggest competitors,” he told the committee.
ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel was quoted recently as saying he regretted approving Commonwealth Bank’s purchase of BankWest, saying Australia’s banks now had ”workable competition but less than intense competition”.
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