One thing we should be able to ask of our next Government is that its policy makers learn from the more avoidable mistakes that have been made over the past few years. All of these mistakes come under the heading of accountability.The Rudd-Gillard Government introduced a number of measures to improve the efficiency and competitiveness of the banking system. It set up the "tick and flick" system to allow people to change banks more easily. And the Reserve Bank gave card scheme operators the authority to limit surcharging on card transactions.It is impossible to know whether these and other measures have been effective, because no mechanisms were put in place to monitor and review them. No one has the job of making sure they work.The Australian Payments Clearing Association was given the job of designing a system that banks could use to facilitate easier account switching. Under the scheme, customers can authorise their new bank to go to their old bank and arrange the transfer to the new direct debit and credit arrangements.From the beginning some banks have complained that other banks have followed the letter but not the spirit of the new rules. Transfer arrangements have been made unnecessarily complicated and slow.APCA's job was to set up the transfer system but not to monitor or police it, so no one knows how well it is actually working.Citibank commissioned a market research company to conduct a shadow shopping exercise to see how the new system was working. The bank scheduled a media conference to release the findings, which were understood to be critical of the approach being taken by some big banks, but then cancelled it. The report was never issued. This little comedy is as close as we've got to learning how well the "tick and flick" program is working.Last year, the Reserve Bank re-wrote the card surcharging rules in response to widespread criticism that some merchants were using surcharging to gouge their customers. Under new rules, introduced in March, card scheme operators were given the authority to limit surcharging to the reasonable cost of acceptance.The Government then asked the Commonwealth Consumer Affairs Advisory Council to have a look at the issue. Submissions to the CCAAC's review were almost unanimous in saying that the Reserve Bank's new merchant surcharging standard would not work unless a statutory body was given the job of monitoring merchant practices and enforcing the rules.The structure set up by the RBA gave the card schemes a job they didn't want and which other industry participants thought they could not do properly anyway. In its submission, Visa pointed out the difficulty of fulfilling the role the RBA had given it. It said card schemes had to limit the activities of merchants with whom they do not have direct relationships. Card schemes have to work through acquiring banks that have the direct relationship with merchants.The CCAAC took submissions in May, but the industry is still waiting for its response. This is another example of policy being made