Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

With International Credit Union Day last Friday, I ask the House today to note the ongoing unlevel playing field with the four major banks and the non-major banks, credit unions and mutuals, who also compete in that space. Since the GFC, regulatory settings that we are familiar with have left us with the four major banks holding 80 per cent of the market and another 90 authorised deposit institutions fighting over the remainder. While this may be as good as it gets, it doesn't represent true competition. As we saw in the Australian last week, despite having higher funding costs and having to hold more capital against each loan than the big four, non-major banks continue to offer lower rates in many cases. This is simply not sustainable in the long run.

The desire of these nonmajors to compete does need to be fully unleashed so that we actually have a better banking sector and, ultimately, better outcomes for Australian families. For the sake of mum-and-dad mortgage holders, for instance, small business even, I call upon APRA to take action around capital and funding settings. That will work to level the competitive playing field in the banking sector. On International Credit Union Day last week, the theme was 'Local Service. Global Reach'. Remember these credit unions and mutuals have been around for over 100 years and they, ultimately, are customer owned. We wish the big four well but the smaller ones should be there side by side as well, making sure Australia continues to have one of the highest quality banking sectors.