Bank greed to be called out at FBAA conference

As the FBAA’s annual National Industry Conference commences on Queensland’s Gold Coast, managing director Peter White AM said the industry is facing a challenging year ahead due to what he says is an effort by some large banks to undermine brokers in order to generate more direct business.

Mr White will share with delegates that he is concerned that, “some banks want to return to the practices of the bad old days and ignore the findings from both the Sedgwick report and the Hayne royal commission.”

Prior to the conference, he said that various banks have been publicly attacking brokers for some time, “and we can only see this as an attempt to undermine the broking sector for their own gain.”

“If this is the case, it’s a short term and quite stupid strategy considering what the broking sector delivers to lenders and consumers,” he said.

Mr White pointed to recent comments by bank CEOs and moves by some banks to reinstate increased bonuses for their bankers, something he said was incentivising the risk of bad behaviour.

“I’ve said this before but the banks would love less competition like they had in the past, but the world has moved on and Australian consumers will never stand for that.”

He called on banks to accept the will of Australian borrowers who overwhelmingly use brokers and pointed out that many lenders rely on the broking channel exclusively.

“We want to work well with the big banks, keeping in mind that they are the lender and get the business, so it’s not actually competition.”

Mr White said he understands that banks exist for their shareholders, however they are “indisputably making massive profits for their shareholders.”

“When profit becomes greed at the expense of consumers it’s time for this to be called out.”

Mr White believes banks will keep pushing the boundaries over the next year and issued a warning.

“Brokers will always abide by their best interests duty obligations, but will also support banks that support competition whenever they can.”