Swan presses on with price-signalling ban

Treasurer Wayne Swan is expected to introduce his promised price-signalling laws into Parliament today, with only limited changes to ease the banking industry's concerns.

The bill will allow the sharing of certain types of new information between banks, according to a report in the Financial Review.

As previously flagged in Banking Day, the bill also includes a "legitimate business" exception, and a system for notifying the ACCC of any planned private communication of prices to competitors, the report said.

Business and academic critics have attacked the laws as unworkable, suggesting the notification system looks impractical. They argue for a full-scale reworking of the legislation.

But Swan is set to press ahead with the laws, which are part of his December package of banking reforms. The ban will affect both a range of private communications with competitors and some public statements.

According to the AFR report, information-sharing allowed under the new laws will include:

• communications required by the stock exchange continuous disclosure rules, including discussion of funding costs;
 
• communications with financial planners and mortgage brokers;

• discussions required for commercial ventures such as syndicated loans.