Banks resume interest rate rises as ACCC looks away
The Australian 12:00am September 7, 2018
Michael Roddan
EXCLUSIVE The renewed “synchronised swimming” of the major banks lifting interest rates in tandem, out of cycle with the Reserve Bank, has come after the competition watchdog’s investigation into mortgage pricing has ended.
Politicians and consumer groups have lashed the major banks’ latest round of mortgage rate increases, sparked by Westpac’s 14-basis-point rise last week and followed in quick succession yesterday by Commonwealth Bank and ANZ with rate moves of 15 and 16 basis points respectively.
However, the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission’s scrutiny of the interest rate decisions of the major banks only extends to the period to the end of June, putting the latest round of price rises beyond the scope of the watchdog’s review.
The ACCC review, which was established after the then Turnbull government slapped a $6.2 billion tax on the major banks and warned them not to pass on the costs to borrowers, has found a “lack of vigorous price competition” between the major banks, according to the regulator’s chairman, Rod Sims.
In its interim report for the mortgage inquiry published in March, the ACCC said “one bank considered whether the costs could be passed on to customers and suppliers at a range of different time periods, including after the end of the ACCC inquiry”.
The ACCC declined to name the bank and Freedom of Information requests by The Australian for documents that identified the bank were blocked by the ACCC.
The ACCC is due soon to publish its final report from its investigation.
The federal government has awarded the ACCC funding to continue investigations into the financial sector.
However, the ACCC’s requests for approval for its next projects are yet to be approved by new Treasurer Josh Frydenberg.
Earlier this year, Mr Sims said documents siphoned out of the banks revealed pricing behaviour between the lenders “more resembles synchronised swimming than it does vigorous competition” and that it was “more consistent with accommodating a shared interest … rather than vying for market share by offering the lowest interest rates”.
UBS analyst Jonathan Mott said ANZ and CBA’s rate increases “demonstrate the oligopolistic nature of the Australian banks” and the lenders’ ability to pass on additional funding costs and more to customers.
While Westpac claimed its rate rise would not fully recover the costs lost to higher funding costs, ANZ’s rate increase was “twice the funding cost headwind”, according to Mr Mott.
ANZ, which is less reliant on wholesale funding than its larger rivals, is expected to gain a $300 million annual boost to revenues through its rate rises — double the $150m increase in the bank’s funding costs, according to Mr Mott.
Meanwhile, CBA recently punished its savers by cutting its deposit rates by 30 basis points, which already saved the bank millions a year.
Opposition financial services spokeswoman Clare O’Neil said given that the RBA kept rates on hold this week, it was “disappointing” to see rate rises while Australians were “struggling to make ends meet”.
Mr Mott said there was a risk from pushing through rate rises in the current political environment, as the government or Labor may look to increase the bank levy. The UK’s bank levy, on which former treasurer Scott Morrison modelled his bank levy, was increased nine times after it was introduced.
This week Bill Shorten wrote to Mr Morrison calling for Kenneth Hayne’s royal commission to be extended and to hear from more consumers.
A spokesman for NAB, the only big four bank yet to move on rates, said it was “continuously” assessing its interest rates and always sought to balance customer and shareholder interests.
However, any appetite for rate rises may be dampened after the corporate watchdog yesterday launched legal action against NAB, accusing it of breaking the law 77 times over a superannuation fee-for-no-service scandal that allegedly siphoned more than $100m from half a million customers.