Commonwealth Bank has avoided any conditions being imposed on its purchase of a controlling stake in Aussie Home Loans, with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission giving the deal the green light yesterday.CBA already owns a one-third stake in Aussie and plans to lift that to 80 per cent, with the right to move "subsequently" to 100 per cent ownership.The ACCC said it had concluded that this would not give rise to a substantial lessening of competition.It said: "Aussie Home Loans brokers make up only around six per cent of Australia's mortgage brokers, and there are many other distribution channels through which lenders can access brokers and borrowers."The ACCC acknowledged that Commonwealth Bank "is likely to have the ability and incentive to increase the volume of, for example, 'white label' home loan products (financed by Commonwealth Bank and rebranded as Aussie Home Loans) supplied through the Aussie Home Loans network."In reaching its view, the ACCC took into account the competitive constraint arising from the presence of a number of alternative suppliers of home loan products and mortgage distribution services."John Minz, chief executive of Heritage Bank (a mutual), slammed the decision. "[It] would perpetuate the confusion caused by the big banks' 'multi-branding' strategy - setting up or acquiring smaller brands that then give the impression that they are independent," he said.Consumer research commissioned by Abacus Australian Mutuals, which was released in February (and conducted by D&M Research), found that only 12 per cent of people knew that Aussie Home Loans' major shareholder was Commonwealth Bank, with similar levels of ignorance about Westpac's control of Rams and NAB's control of Ubank.