Posturing on Postbank
Wednesday, May 5th, 2010
Australia Post chief Ahmed Fahour may be keeping plans for a Postbank close to his chest, but that isn’t stopping the industry, vendors and politicians from speculating what form it might take.
Sources say Fahour has engaged the services of former NAB colleagues Michelle Tredenick and Andrew Maitland to investigate the Greenfield bank opportunity.
At last month’s Senate Committee hearing forming part of the inquiry into access of small business to finance, two Senators took a line of questioning related to the possible entrance of an Australia Post bank, backed by the Government.
Senators Nick Xenophon and John Williams sought input from industry groups as to whether a Postbank could help drive more competition in business lending.
A Postbank could certainly be given the remit to explore new banking models, and meet the needs of alternative markets. It’s likely it would also be expected to embrace ethical causes. It’s not out of the question that a Postbank could foster an Australian microlending industry, or invest in start-ups that might find getting funding elsewhere difficult.
Some in the industry argue a Postbank would simply be left with the business the major banks aren’t interested in, but it’s doubtful Fahour would be thinking this way. Armed with a sizeable distribution network and Government backing, there would be plenty of scope for a Postbank to rethink the business of banking. It could source IT in an entirely different way to that of its major bank competitors, it could pick and choose partners whose products it could distribute, and it could explore a new service proposition.
That the industry is chattering about Postbank is proof it is a little scared of what a major new competitor might do to the market, particularly when the big four banks command 84 per cent of all residential lending and 82 per cent of all retail deposits* in Australia. That’s enough share for any non-complacent competitor to chip away at.
*Data analysis by Retail Banking Review columnist and banking analyst John Phillips from APRA and RBA sources
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