A private members' bill to set up "a parliamentary inquiry into the banking and financial services sector" is on its way to the House of Representatives after the Senate yesterday passed a bill backed by five cross-bench senators.Senators Whish-Wilson, Hanson, Hinch, Lambie, Roberts and Xenophon were behind the bill.As a substitute for a royal commission, this inquiry - authorised by an act of parliament - must also pass the House of Representatives, where it would take only one rogue MP to deprive the government of numbers to block the bill.The Australian reports that Queensland Nationals MP George Christensen yesterday backed down from his threat to cross the floor by voting against a Labor push to debate a Greens bill for a banking inquiry.The explanatory memorandum for the bill states that "the full extent of misconduct with the banking and financial services sector has not been discovered, particularly given the limited time and resources available to committees of the parliament, and the inability to utilise expert legal cross-examination and forensic analysis."This Bill seeks to ensure that the extent of misconduct with the banking and financial services sector is exhaustively examined and that the impact on victims of misconduct is fully understood."This Bill appoints a Commission to establish the causal factors for this misconduct, including misaligned incentives, culture, inadequate regulation and regulatory power, and 'moral hazard' extending from government guarantees. This issue is of concern given the size of the banking and financial services sector, and its importance to the functioning of the Australian economy."The Bill will be considered by the House of Reps next week, with its fate to be determined there, most likely on Monday.