Clark enlightens us about open banking while Sio throws light (through a Maori world lens) on what once was blind justice

Buzz from the Beehive

It’s the announcement we saw coming when Newshub revealed the Government was poised to announce a major change to banking, “which experts say will slash their profits”.

This news was broadcast as Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was adding her voice to the populist chorus of disapproval about those profits.

It so happened the government was working on a concept called “open banking”, whereby customers can move their bank accounts, direct debits and what-have-you between banks.

Simplicity CEO Sam Stubbs said this data sharing is common overseas, encourages competition and brings bank profits down. Whether crimping bank profits should be encouraged is open to question, but hey – the  government has been taking a battering in political polls and most people reckon bankers are bastards.

Wake-up call in banking should be heeded by the regulatory agencies, too

“PM:  If  banks won’t  act lift game, we’ll  act”.  So read the headline in  Tuesday’s  NZ  Herald.

Sounds  as  if the government is  on the job, although the   underline was a  bit  more cautious:  “Ardern’s  stern  words stop short of saying customers  ripped  off”.

So  what  was  the headmistress  on  about?   Surely she wasn’t   saying the  Reserve  Bank   (a  key regulatory agent in the banking sector)  needs a rev  up?

Or is it that KiwiBank  needs to  lift its game?

Possibly.  KiwiBank hasn’t been the  raging success  its founder, the  late Jim Anderton,    thought or hoped it would be.