Stop banks buying fintechs: ACCC

John Kehoe and Jemima Whyte

Oct 21, 2020 – 6.23pm

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Competition regulator Rod Sims will press the federal government for tougher anti-merger laws that include stopping the big banks from buying emerging fintechs, to avoid repeating the mistakes that allowed Google and Facebook to hoover up competitors.

Mr Sims said the recovery from the COVID-19 recession would be impeded if dominant companies increased their market power, particularly as more activities were undertaken online and the value of personal data increased to businesses controlling it.

John Kehoe is economics editor at Parliament House, Canberra. He writes on economics, politics and business. John was Washington correspondent covering Donald Trump’s first election. He joined the Financial Review in 2008 from Treasury.

Jemima Whyte writes on business, specialising in companies, capital markets and innovation. Jemima has reported on business for The Australian Financial Review for more than 13 years.