Bendigo and Adelaide Bank and Bank of Queensland held preliminary talks over the merit of a merger between the two banks
The Australian reported.
The newspaper quoted David Liddy, chief executive of BOQ, from an interview in the newspaper's magazine, The Deal, in a yet to be published roundtable.
"There has to be fundamental structural change in the industry," Liddy said.
"None of the regional banks has the scale. Bendigo is one and a half times our size, Suncorp is about the same size . . .. There should be consolidation among the regional banks."
Bendigo Bank, as it then was, spurned a takeover offer from BOQ in early 2007 and later agred to merge with Adelaide Bank.