The House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics willconduct public hearings on 11, 12 and 19 October in Canberra as part of its ongoingscrutiny of Australia’s four major banks.
The Chair of the committee, MsSarah Henderson MP, stated that ‘these hearings provide an important mechanismto hold the four major banks to account before the Parliament.’
‘The hearings will be conducted shortly after the Royal Commission intoMisconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry handsdown its interim report which is due by 30 September 2018. This will providethe committee with an important opportunity to scrutinise the banks on a rangeof matters including the interim findings of the Royal Commissioner,’ MsHenderson said.
The committee has held three rounds of hearings and published threereports in November 2016, April 2017 and December 2017. The committee has made asuite of recommendations for banking reform, which have been broadly adopted bythe Government.
Key reforms to improveoutcomes for Australian consumers to date include: putting in place a one-stopshop for consumer complaints, the Australian Financial Complaints Authority; aregulated Banking Executive Accountability Regime; and, new powers andresources for the ACCC to investigate competition issues in the setting of interestrates.
The Government also adoptedthe committee's recommendations to establish an open data regime and change theregulatory requirement for bank start-ups in order to encourage morecompetition in the sector.
Thehearing will be webcast live: http://www.aph.gov.au/Watch_Read_Listen
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Thursday, 11 October 2018
9.15am to 12.15pm: Commonwealth Bank
1.15pm to 4.15pm: Westpac
Friday, 12 October 2018
9.15am to 12.15pm: ANZ
Friday, 19 October 2018 The hearings will be broadcast live at aph.gov.au/live
9.15am to 12.15pm: National Australia Bank
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Interested members of the public may wish to track the committee via the website. Click on the blue ‘Track Committee’ button in the bottom right hand corner and use the forms to login to My Parliament or to register for a My Parliament account. ---
