Mike Hirst, managing director of Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, used the bank's annual general meeting yesterday to outline some issues the bank wants addressed at the forthcoming financial system inquiry.Hirst said: "Over the last few years, the bank has had to fight with one hand tied behind… [its] back as regulatory intervention has favoured the largest players."Hirst said that the inquiry "needs to turn its collective mind to the sheer weight of regulation that is being driven through the industry and the cost of that to business and consumers."Speaking to Banking Day later, Hirst said: "The point I was trying to make is regulation has a cost associated with it. It's the same for everybody, pretty much a fixed cost for everybody. "On a unit costing basis it's much less of a cost [for major banks]."Hirst also grumbled again at the AGM about the pricing of the (now lapsed) government guarantee on large deposits and wholesale funding put in place in 2008.He said this "erred in prioritising credit rating over prevailing market structure" by making smaller banks pay more than larger banks.Hirst said this policy "had a major impact on customer choice… What we don't have is an even playing field that promotes customer choice."He argued that "size provides larger players with funding and regulatory advantages that ultimately restricts customer choice."However, Robert Johansen, chair of the bank's board, adopted an optimistic note in his speech."The last five years have been ones of consolidation and we are now looking to take greater advantage of opportunities in the market place," he said.Hirst later clarified that this was not a reference to mergers and acquisitions.Johansen also reiterated two of the bank's pricing principles: "We will only write business in any part of the book where it is profitable to do so, and we aim never to compete on price alone."