Restructuring might help manage conflicts of interest between offering advice and selling products, but it doesn’t fix the culture that sacrifices customers’ interests to the pursuit of profits.
A number of factors have contributed to the horrible stories coming out of the Royal Commission, including market instability and the financialisation of farming.
The charges laid against ANZ and other banks over alleged cartel-like behaviour suggests that Australia is following the United States in cracking down on anti-competitive behaviour.
While codes of conduct in banking may help, the tsunami of financial regulation over the past few decades has swept aside much of the sense of personal accountability.
Black Canadians encounter systemic bias when banking and can have a hard time obtaining loans for their businesses. Mutual aid co-operatives can offer some true alternatives.
It seems ASIC and the Director of Public Prosecutions will have no lack of evidence to pursue civil penalties and criminal cases. The bigger issue is what charges to go with.
Open banking will require data sharing that will disrupt the monopoly that big banks have on customers’ financial data. It will boost the range of products and deals available to people.
The major banks have tried to downplay their role in manipulating the BBSW interest rate benchmark. But this is not the first instance of bad behaviour.