Mike's Minute: There's no "silver bullet" solution to bringing in more banks

"MP's struggle to identify silver bullet solutions".

That was the headline Friday as Jenee Tibshraeny detailed a years worth of work by the Finance and Expenditure Committee that has come up with zip.

Oh they have made recommendations, don’t get me wrong.

Imagine what it would look like if they had been toiling away for a year and came up with a blank piece of paper.

But without telling you I told you so... I told you so.

Here is the difference between us and them.

They entered this particular exercise with an ideological or conspiratorial bent.

The opposition and their ideas involve public ownership, Māori banking theories and all sorts of psychobabble that has nothing to do with competition.

The Government has the Nicola Willis idea that this is all a scam, the banks are crooks and they are ripping us off.

I have argued there is no scam, there is plenty of competition and I have become increasingly convinced the issue really lies in the Reserve Bank and their desire for retail banks to hold gargantuan amounts of money in reserve "just in case".

Labour buys into this thinking, which is why they appointed Adrian Orr, who introduced the rules in the first place.

The evidence is all around us.

Is there choice? Do people swap banks a lot? Do banks openly compete for customers? Can you do deals through brokers, or directly? Yes, yes, yes and yes.

Would more banks help? Probably, but there is nothing stopping them opening.

So, the committee has no silver bullet. Do you know why? Because there isn't one.

Because guess what - the system isn't broken.

No, it's not perfect. It's what happens with limited markets and small populations.

As I have said to Nicola Willis all along, if you've got an answer, do it. Pull the trigger, show us your trick and wave your wand.

But one year of searching tells you one thing. If you look at things with an open mind, you wouldn’t have gone down the rabbit hole.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
MP's here's the headline, MPs struggle to identify silver bullet solutions.
We speak of banking, MP struggle to identify silver bullet solutions.
So I read the headline Friday, A Jene Tibshrainy detailed
a year's worth of work by the Finance and Expenditure
Committee that's come up with nothing. Oh, they made recommendations,

(00:20):
don't get me wrong. I mean imagine what it would
look like if they'd been toiling away for a whole
year and came up with a blank piece of paper,
but without telling you I told you so. I told
you so. And here is the difference between us and them. Right.
They entered this particular exercise with the banks with an
ideological or conspiratorial bent the opposition, and their ideas involved
public ownership of banks, Marrie banking theories, all sorts of

(00:42):
psychobabble that's got nothing to do with competition. The government
has the Nicola Willis idea that this is all a scam,
the banks are crooks, they're ripping us off. Now I've
argued there is no scam. There is plenty of competition,
and I have become increasingly convinced the issue really lies
in the reserve bank and their desire for retail banks
to hold gargantuan amounts money in reserve just in case labor.

(01:03):
They buy into this thinking, which is why they appointed
Adrian Or who introduced the rules in the first place.
The evidence is all around us. Ask yourself some questions.
Is their choice? Do people swap banks a lot? Do
banks openly compete for customers? Can you do deals through
brokers or directly? Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, and yes.
Would more banks help probably, But there's nothing stopping them opening.

(01:25):
So the committee has no silver bullet. You know why,
because there isn't one. Because guess what. The system isn't broken. No,
it's not perfect. It's what happens in limited markets and
small populations. As I've said to Nicola, willis all along.
If you've got an answer, do it, pull the trigger,
show us your trick, wave your wand But one year
of searching tells you one thing. If you look at

(01:46):
things with an open mind, you wouldn't have gone down
the rabbit hole. For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast,
listen live to news talks it'd be from six am weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.