Retread works for Coleman crew
Rather like the CEO hearings that informed it, the second report on the Review of the Four Major Banks from the Standing Committee on Economics is practically all old hat.The report, drawn from half a dozen episodes of often repetitive, dull questioning of major bank CEOs last month, reconsiders the committee's own recommendations from late 2016.It affirmed the lot from last time.The only new ground is a retread of another form, an echo and hooray for the December 2016 report of the Australian Small Business and Family EnterpriseOmbudsman, Kate Carnell, into small business loans.This section inspired a dose of original comment from a committee headed by Liberal MP David Coleman MP"It is very difficult to support the continued use of non-monetary default clauses in small business loans," Coleman's committee wrote, riffing on one of the centrepiece topics in the ASBFEO report.The committee did not offer a view on a topic sensitive to all banks: where to draw the line on defining the threshold for a small business loans. That number is especially relevant as those borrowers that qualify evade certain contract terms otherwise common in business lending.Carnell proposed earlier this year that, for all loans below A$5 million where a small business has complied with loan payment requirements and has acted lawfully, the bank must not default a loan for any reason. Two banks, ANZ and Westpac, outlined $3 million as a preferred threshold.