Re-establishing a government owned bank, one with a focus on assuring the supply of financial services in regional areas, is the chief proposal in the report of the Senate’s Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee inquiry into bank closures in regional Australia.
The committee recommends that the Australian government commission an expert panel to investigate the feasibility of establishing a publicly owned bank.
In investigating this, the panel should examine options “including, but not limited to a stand-alone public bank or one associated with, and using the branch network of Australia Post.”
The committee’s overarching recommendation is that the government adopt a policy “recognising access to financial services as an essential service. To this end, it should commit to guaranteeing reasonable access to cash and financial services for all Australians.”
The committee conducted much of its work over 15 months covering the period in which controversies over reasonable access to cash were at their zenith.
The committee further recommends protocols under which an unspecified regulator would ensure banks undertake “meaningful consultation” before a bank branch is closed.??It proposes development of a mandatory Banking Code of Conduct or Customer Service Code, incorporating a robust branch closure process.
Then there is a vague call for some form of shared bank branch format, labelled a
Regional Community Banking Branch Program.
The committee recommends that the government “works closely with the banks and Australia Post, to require all major banks to have agreements with Bank@Post and to harmonise the terms of Bank@Post agreements to improve fairness and sustainability.”
This is basically a shot at ANZ which some years ago withdrew, on cost grounds, from any association with Bank@Post.
The committee calls for “a supplement to the Major Banks Levy, to be levied on
the major banks.
“Funds raised by the supplement must be hypothecated to provide funding” to any Regional Community Banking Branch Program.
There is no analysis in the Senate committee’s report on the capital and other costs of re-establishing a government owned bank.