***Newsflash*** ACCC blocks NAB's bid for AXA
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has again blocked National Australia Bank's proposed acquisition of AXA Asia Pacific.
The ACCC said it maintained its initial opposition of the bid on the basis that NAB's revised bid, which included divesting AXA's North platform to IOOF, did not "provide sufficient certainty that the ACCC's competition concerns will be addressed".
The ACCC considered that IOOF did not have sufficient distribution capability to provide an effective competitive constraint on existing key players in the foreseeable future, and as such, competition, particularly in the platform space, would be constrained if NAB's proposed acquisition was allowed to proceed.
Recommended for you
As the first quarter of 2024 comes to a close, Money Management looks back on the corporate regulator’s bans and AFSL cancellations in the financial advice sector.
Insignia Financial is holding ‘relatively steady’ onto its rank as Australia’s second-largest financial advice licensee after the Godfrey Pembroke exit but Count is hot on its heels.
Liberal senator Slade Brockman has said the government needs to have a “cold hard look” at the level of regulation in the financial advice space and the costs of running a business.
FAAA chief executive, Sarah Abood, has warned changes in the first tranche of the QAR legislation around advice fees documentation could create more work for advisers rather than less.