CHOICE urges rejection of Westpac merger
The consumer group CHOICE has again urged the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to reject the proposed merger between Westpac and St George Bank.
CHOICE made the recommendation in response to the ACCC’s Statement of Issues on the merger, saying many of its concerns about increased competition had not been addressed by the ACCC.
The report said: “We remain deeply concerned about the impact of the merger in the retail banking market… many of our concerns have not been addressed in the Statement of Issues.”
CHOICE noted that the ACCC had chosen not to release the results of a customer survey held in June concerning the proposed merger, and said that the issues raised concerning the merger would be “greatly enhanced” by the public release of the survey results.
CHOICE also raised concerns that the ACCC was over-reliant on the 17 per cent market share of credit unions to provide a level of competition with the two banks. The merged banks would control a 25 per cent share of the market.
The submission also mentioned that the merger could create an “untenable” concentration of providers in the wealth management market.
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