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The House of Representatives will conduct public hearings on 8 and 27 March 2019 in Canberra as part of its ongoing scrutiny of Australia’s four major banks.

The Chair of the committee, Mr Tim Wilson MP, stated that ‘these hearings provide an important mechanism to hold the four major banks to account before the Parliament.’

‘These hearings will, in particular, provide an opportunity to scrutinise the banks on the findings of the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry,’ Ms Wilson said.

The committee has held four rounds of hearings as part of its ongoing review. The committee has made a suite of recommendations for banking reform, which have been broadly adopted by the Government.

Key reforms to improve outcomes for Australian consumers to date include: putting in place a one-stop shop for consumer complaints, the Australian Financial Complaints Authority; a regulated Banking Executive Accountability Regime; and, new powers and resources for the ACCC to investigate competition issues in the setting of interest rates.

The Government also adopted the committee’s recommendations to establish an open data regime and change the regulatory requirement for bank start-ups in order to encourage more competition in the sector.