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Mike's Minute: Banks - The perceived problem vs what's actually happening · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from Newstalks'd be follow this
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  Speaker 2: Now. With the news last week that a lot of
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  Speaker 2: people are changing banks as they refinance their mortgages, we
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  Speaker 2: once again ask ourselves whether the problem we think we
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  Speaker 2: have is actually a problem. We seem, at least in
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  Speaker 2: part in this country to be caught up with the
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  Speaker 2: idea that if you're one big and two profitable, there
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  Speaker 2: might be an issue. Banks have taken heat, of course,
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  Speaker 2: for years, so much so that the government's passed and
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  Speaker 2: indeed this's current one are asking some fairly serious questions
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  Speaker 2: about the way they do business now. The rural sector
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  Speaker 2: not short of an opinion on the way they're being
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  Speaker 2: treated at the moment, But the recent Commerce Commission report
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  Speaker 2: into the sector tells us very clearly there isn't enough competition,
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  Speaker 2: despite the fact that there are in fact no shortage
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  Speaker 2: of actual banks with which to do business. Open banking
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  Speaker 2: has been touted as a good move forward, and in
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  Speaker 2: theory might well be, but the Australians will tell you
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  Speaker 2: it's hardly a game changer. Technically it's easier to swap banks.
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  Speaker 2: Good do they well? Seems no more than previously. So
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  Speaker 2: the figures produced last week by the Reserve Bank are
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  Speaker 2: instructive because they're a real world example of banking in action.
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  Speaker 2: At the moment, the banks are busy offering deals. Of course,
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  Speaker 2: they want money out the door. They're cutting rates multiple
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  Speaker 2: times so far, and that story, by the way, isn't over.
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  Speaker 2: There are plenty more where that came from. And as
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  Speaker 2: a result of the deal's on offer, people are shopping around,
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  Speaker 2: people are moving, people are taking the arrangement that best
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  Speaker 2: suits them. Now, that is what's called the market working. Now,
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  Speaker 2: if you run a pole and ask whether people are
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  Speaker 2: happy or you're paying too much we like things to
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  Speaker 2: be cheaper, you'll always get the predictable answer. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: even at supermarkets, as prices drop, people will tell you
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  Speaker 2: they're not. Once again, I offer the rider that this
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  Speaker 2: is not a defense of banks or banking or big business,
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  Speaker 2: but it is an observation of the real world based
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  Speaker 2: on real facts and real events. So just how bad
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  Speaker 2: is the perceived problem versus what's actually happening.
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