20 March 2023
The Australian Banking Association (ABA) welcomes the opportunity to provide this submission to the Senate Select Committee on Cost of Living’s (Committee) inquiry into the cost of living pressures facing Australians, ways to ease the cost of living and the Government’s fiscal policy response (Inquiry).
Banks are aware of the challenges Australians face in the current inflationary environment, which have arisen from a combination of the COVID-19 pandemic, high household savings, pent-up demand, and global factors, including supply chain constraints and the war in Ukraine. To curb inflation, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), alongside other central banks globally, have responded by tightening monetary policy. The increases in the target cash rate have had flow-on effects to the cost of banking and living for Australian consumers.
Download PDFLatest articles
The ABA submission to the Senate Economic Committee, the submission addresses the importance of certainty regarding capital raises and distributions to banks.
Australian banks operate in a competitive and dynamic environment. They compete with each other and with other financial service providers, including tech companies, to provide products and services to consumers. Given the pace of technological change and transformation, banks are constantly innovating their customer offerings and processes to remain competitive. To compete effectively, banks continually adapt to respond to customer needs and preferences. As such, banks have, over the past several decades, become increasingly digital.
This submission details the ABA’s views on key areas of focus including the future of work; equal opportunities for women; future labour force participation.