The PC has been given a broad task of examining competition across the financial sector.

This includes:

• Considering the level of contestability and concentration in key areas, including through vertical integration and assessing the implications for competition and consumer outcomes.

• Looking at barriers to and enablers of innovation and competition in the financial system, including through policy and regulatory levers.

• Scoping what competition in the financial system should look like and be prioritised, as well as the challenges to be overcome to achieve this.

The draft report contains 25 draft recommendations.

These include:

• Fast tracking reforms that reduce regulatory barriers to entry and expansion in banking, including improving access to capital and reviewing share ownership limits.

• Improving transparency by introducing:

• an online tool providing consumers with comparative interest rate data;
• an obligation on general insurers to disclose price increases at renewal.

• Providing the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) or Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) with increased responsibilities to promote competition in the financial system, with all regulators required to consider the competitive impact of their decisions.