Latest / Best of Business / Stuart Smith: Parliament Finance Committee chair on ANZ CEO Antonia Watson being grilled in banking sector competition inquiry

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Stuart Smith: Parliament Finance Committee chair on ANZ CEO Antonia Watson being grilled in banking sector competition inquiry · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: Do for Cela So.
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  Speaker 2: Parliament's Big Banking inquiry kicked off today. The first to
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  Speaker 2: face the grilling was the A and Z boss Antonia Watson.
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  Speaker 2: Stuart Smith is a National m P. He's also the
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  Speaker 2: chair of the Finance and Expenditure Committee running this particular
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  Speaker 2: inquiry and is with us now how Stewart.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, good evening, Stuart fair to say.
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  Speaker 2: You guys didn't actually get anything much out of this.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I don't think we really expected to get too much.
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  Speaker 3: I think was interesting what wasn't answered and some of
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  Speaker 3: the you know, the answers that we got were essentially
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  Speaker 3: not accepting what the Commerce Commission had found in their
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  Speaker 3: market study. And it was really interesting actually when you
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  Speaker 3: start looking at the numbers that they found in fact
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  Speaker 3: that our banks are our big banks are very profitable
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  Speaker 3: on a world stage.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, but the banks counter that by saying stually, a
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  Speaker 2: twelve percent return on investment is pretty middle of the road.
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  Speaker 3: Well, the A and V has a twelve point six
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  Speaker 3: percent return on equity. I think that's quite high. And
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  Speaker 3: particularly considering it's relatively low risk. I mean, our banks
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  Speaker 3: haven't lost money in twenty nine years, so they've had
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  Speaker 3: a pretty low risk model, and they've not invested a
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  Speaker 3: lot in innovation, and as the market study shows, is
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  Speaker 3: very little in the way of competition. But that's what
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  Speaker 3: we haven't got any conclusions yet that we're trying to
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  Speaker 3: dig into all of that and get some answers.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, so what did you actually get out of today?
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  Speaker 2: Was it worth making Antonia fly down?
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  Speaker 3: Absolutely? Absolutely? It's New Zealanders need answers. New Zealanders who
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  Speaker 3: are paying their mortgages every day or every week, they
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  Speaker 3: need to enough.
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  Speaker 2: But what answers did you get out of Antonia and
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  Speaker 2: the chair that we haven't got for you in an
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  Speaker 2: interview on the phone.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I don't think you get the real answers unless
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  Speaker 3: you get them in front of Select Committee. We're only
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  Speaker 3: get more because we've got been questions that are going
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  Speaker 3: to them. We will find out what she got paid
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  Speaker 3: last year. She didn't answer that question.
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  Speaker 2: That's fair enough, though, Stuart, isn't it. I mean, if
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  Speaker 2: you're earning two point five million plus, you've stopped counting,
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  Speaker 2: haven't you.
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  Speaker 3: I'd be very surprised if a bank, a senior bank
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  Speaker 3: executive wasn't interested in to the dollar and how much
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  Speaker 3: I paid.
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  Speaker 2: Really okay, Stuart, thank you, I appreciate it. Well, good
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  Speaker 2: luck with the rest of the banking inquiry. I'm looking
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  Speaker 2: forward to the juicy stuff. That's Stuart Smith, National MP
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  Speaker 2: and Chair of the Finance and Expenditure Committee.
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