Westpac calls for more competition
Westpac’s Gail Kelly has told the government to inject further funds in the Residential Mortgage Backed Securities (RMBS) market.
Speaking at the Senate Banking Inquiry on Friday, Ms Kelly said the Global Financial Crisis had highlighted just how important it is to have a robust and competitive banking sector.
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For the most part, Ms Kelly said the Australian banking sector is highly competitive. However, she agreed that more could be done to stimulate this competition.
“Healthy and stable competition is not just about the sheer number of participants in a market; nor is it simply about price. There is a range of factors on which customers make choices, including service propositions, product features and packaging, levels of advice offered, customer support, branch availability, on-line and ATM experience, and differences in relationship management,” she said.
“As such, we would welcome the further support to the RMBS market. We also believe that more needs to be done to encourage savings, and here levelling the playing field between bank deposits and other currently more tax favoured savings opportunities will assist.”