Treasurer green lights ANZ takeover of Suncorp
When inflation numbers came in higher than expected, it raised fears that interest rates might be lifted again. Despite rising wages and next weeks tax cuts putting more money in people’s pockets, the reserve bank has hosed down talk of more rises, for now.
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00:00ANZ has won a long battle to buy Queensland's Suncor, but analysts say they shouldn't celebrate
00:09too hard.
00:10When we have a look at every regional bank acquisition I've ever seen, the acquirer ends
00:15up basically losing a lot of market share unless they very actively discount.
00:20Our competition watchdog opposed the $5 billion deal, but lost in court.
00:25After that, not much could stand in the way.
00:28This was an unbalanced call, but it was consistent with the advice that I received from Treasury
00:33and from the regulators as well.
00:36For the next three years, no branches will close and no staff will lose their jobs.
00:41After that is anyone's guess, as the industry trims its network.
00:45When we've seen this play out many times in the past, that's when you should expect to
00:50see branch reductions in Queensland, just generally.
00:54ANZ has also bought the rights to the Suncor name for the next five years, but no guarantee
01:00it will continue beyond that.
01:02We're always against the amalgamation, especially making the big four even bigger.
01:09The biggest concern for most customers, not the brand, but the impact of high interest rates.
01:15The central bank wants the growth in prices to stabilise between 2 and 3 per cent a year,
01:20The Consumer Price Index and the RBA's preferred measure of trimmed mean inflation are still
01:26far above that and trending up.
01:29Enter our Deputy Governor, newly arrived from the Bank of England, telling Australians to
01:34keep calm and carry on.
01:36It would be a bad mistake to set policy on the basis of one number and we don't intend to do that.
01:43The Deputy Governor says the RBA understands the impact on household budgets.
01:47We have a wide variety of ways of getting non-technical, spreadsheet-y, DSG model kind
01:55of information in to complement the pointy headed stuff.
01:59The Reserve Bank Board meets next in early August.