ANZ wrapped up a week of annual meetings for major banks on Friday with a stark assessment of the forces containing banks at present."The choices for commercial banks such as ANZ are becoming more and more limited," Mike Smith, the bank's CEO, told the annual general meeting in Adelaide. "For us, the cost of funding is rising again - if indeed it is available at all."Smith said that the European debt stress "resulted in a partial freeze in financial flows, with bank funding markets moving into another extremely difficult period - similar to what we saw in 2008." This factor provides the context for the bank's decision to announce future changes in variable home loan rates on the second Friday of each month, "rather than continue with the artificial convention of announcing decisions after Reserve Bank board meetings."Of this shift in practice, Smith said, we "have a significant task ahead to explain the complex world in which we operate in ways our customers and the public can understand, and most importantly that they can accept."Bendigo and Adelaide Bank has said it may follow a similar approach, while other banks have also expressed frustration at the political limits on bank pricing decisions.Speaking of the first two months of ANZ's financial year, which began in October, Smith said, "our core businesses are performing well however higher funding costs and competition are continuing to place pressure on margins."Smith said ANZ will address this in part "by driving productivity outcomes harder", but added that "the challenge of slowing credit growth and tightening margins remains". He said the bank's "performance", or profit, from its global markets' business in the first two months was "broadly in line with expectations".