The UK answer to the banks’ regulation strangulation problem

afr.com:

Westpac CEO Peter King and Australian Banking Association CEO Anna Bligh met Treasurer Jim Chalmers on Wednesday evening to ask the federal government to implement a new policy the banks are calling the “regulatory grid”.

Mr King, who is chairing the ABA this year, was joined at the meeting in Parliament House by deputy ABA chairman Marnie Baker, managing director of Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, ahead of the ABA Council meeting in Canberra on Thursday. It will also be attended by CBA CEO Matt Comyn and NAB CEO Ross McEwan, while ANZ CEO Shayne Elliott attends a climate event in Sydney.

The bankers told Mr Chalmers they recognise regulation is critical to protect customers, but they want the government to create a high-level planning scheme – based on a similar “grid” in Britain – to force legislators and financial regulators to design the sequencing of compliance and legislative changes, so banks are not overburdened.

Westpac CEO Peter King, ABA CEO Anna Bligh, and Bendigo & Adelaide Bank managing director Marnie Baker met with Jim Chalmers at Parliament House on Wednesday night. Peter Rae

Lenders say they have been sinking in a mass of uncoordinated regulation, with Ms Bligh telling the Treasurer that banks faced 1175 pages of new laws and regulations over the last four years, absorbing the recommendations of the Hayne royal commission.

The banks want to determine which rules need to be prioritised, including those that translate to productivity gains for the economy. They also want regulators to consider the burden they are placing on the sector, especially smaller banks.

The Customer Owned Banking Association also backs the “regulatory grid”, and was a signatory on a letter sent by the ABA to Mr Chalmers on Monday.

Mapp