Competition is lacking – but it is not the banks’ fault

Calling the lack of competition among NZ banks a “cosy pillowfight” is to trivialise the problem. (Image: CityLife North)

Andrew Body and Simon Jensen

Mon, 02 Sep 2024

The Commerce Commission’s final competition report into New Zealand’s personal banking services delivered on August 20 is a thoughtful and robust assessment of a large part of New Zealand’s bank sector. It concludes that normal features of competition like provider rivalry, product innovation, sector entry, price competition and customers switching between providers are largely absent from the sector. The report offers a powerful, evidence-based call to action to address a problem that bank customers have kno...

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