Five years after the final Hayne royal commission report, the banking industry gathered for the 10th edition of The Australian Financial Review Banking Summit to ask a question likely to carry well into the next decade. Are banking customers still getting the right balance between safety and competition? Are their interests protected, or just over-protected in ways that stop them getting on the housing ladder or starting businesses for lack of competitive loans?
A very well-capitalised banking sector should not be hobbled by a risk-averse regulatory structure fashioned to reduce the risks of anyone failing. If that is the case, then the banking system will not be able to fund the risks needed to break the post-pandemic economy out of its sub-par growth, lagging productivity and challenged competitiveness.
![“We’re having a birthday party for [daughter] Rada in a few weeks and we’re going to get the truck to come, which is a real flex,” O’Neill says.](https://static.ffx.io/images/$zoom_0.7012%2C$multiply_2%2C$ratio_1.777778%2C$width_1059%2C$x_732%2C$y_641/t_crop_custom/c_scale%2Cw_600%2Cq_52%2Cf_auto/b5e4395344f07ccd1e3a348af02af77c8eeb8d1b)
