7 June 2017
Today’s weak economic growth figure highlights the need to maintain a strong banking industry, the Australian Bankers’ Association said today.
“While the economy grew by a soft 1.7 per cent over the year to the March quarter, the finance and insurance industry grew by a strong 4.0 per cent,” ABA Chief Executive Anna Bligh said.
“Also, the latest inflation figures show that the price of financial services has increased by less than overall inflation, and by much less than some essential items like child care, education, and health.”
Ms Bligh said in this environment the Federal Government’s new tax on major banks was contrary to the national interest.
“You don’t win the race by knobbling your fastest runners,” she said.
“And you can’t tax your way to prosperity. The Government needs to rethink this new tax.”
Over the three years ending June 2016, productivity of the finance and insurance industry has been on average 2.6 per cent per year, nearly four times higher than the overall market sector (on average, 0.7 per cent per year).
ENDS
Contact: Nic Frankham 0435 963 913 (Stephanie Arena is on leave)
Latest news
The Australian Banking Association (ABA) is informing customers about an important update that may affect some debit cards used in mobile wallets. Australian Payments Plus (AP+) is implementing a technical update to ensure that consumers can continue to make payments via eftpos from 1 January 2025. A small number of consumers who added their debit… Read more »
The Australian Banking Association welcomes the launch today of the Regulatory Initiatives Grid (RIG) pilot as an important step forward in improving transparency of the regulatory pipeline across key Government agencies and regulators. ABA CEO Anna Bligh said better coordination of regulation would provide additional certainty for Australian banks. “Banks recognise that effective regulation is… Read more »
New data released today from the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), shows Australians continue to embrace the ease of mobile wallets when making payments. For the first time, the RBA’s latest monthly retail payments data includes a snapshot of newer payment technology, showing more than 500 million payments were made via mobile wallets in October,… Read more »