Australia Post should take on banks: Nats

Australia Post should expand its banking services to create competition for the
major banks, Nationals senator John Williams says.
Senator Williams, a member of the upper house economics references committee
examining competition in the banking sector, said he agreed with an idea floated by
shadow treasurer Joe Hockey whereby Australia Post, a Government Business Enterprise
(GBE), expanded its banking agency business so its 3800 retail outlets provided
competition to the big four banks.
"In regional Australia they still have post offices in most places - we've lost a
lot of banks in those regional and smaller country towns," the NSW senator told
Network Ten on Sunday.
"I would support that."
The Nationals were not in favour of legislating to prevent banks from raising their
lending rates beyond moves in the Reserve Bank cash rate, Senator Williams said.
But he backed Mr Hockey's call for the government to use "levers" available to it.
"The points (Mr Hockey) makes are very valid about competition, about the Reserve
Bank giving a clear, constant reporting on the margins that banks are charging,"
Senator Williams said.
Exit fees to switch variable home loans were also stifling competition and should be
scrapped, he said.
Meanwhile, National Australia Bank chief executive Cameron Clyne says he is not
overly concerned about calls for regulatory changes to the banking sector here and
overseas.
"In the personal banking space, we anticipated there would be pressure on a range of
fees: we've pulled out exception fees, account keeping fees, those sort of things,"
Mr Clyne told Sky News on Sunday.
"I don't know if these are the sort of things that people have in mind, but if you
look at jurisdictions outside of Australia they've definitely been the target of
consumer and regulatory intervention and we've taken those out of our business.
"So we're not particularly worried about some of the threats that are being talked
about in other markets."
Mr Clyne said he was not troubled by talk of giving Australia Post a banking licence
to keep downwards pressure on interest rates because NAB had a strong competitive
footing.
"I think that's something for the government and Australia Post to work out," he said.