Costello opposes banks inquiry
FUTURE Fund chairman and former federal treasurer Peter Costello says there is no purpose and no justification for a royal commission into the performance of the big banks or the financial sector.
Speaking in Sydney, Mr Costello said a royal commission was a last a resort if there is a need to establish “some kind of schematic illegality,” within an institution — a circumstance that does not apply to Australia’s banks.
“We’ve got a royal commission into youth detention — the suspicion is the Territory government might be covering up; a royal commission into sexual abuse, because the suspicion is institutions are covering up,” Mr Costello told the Financial Services Council Leaders Summit.
“If you wanted to break up the banks you wouldn’t need a royal commission to do it.”
Mr Costello, who was Australia’s longest-serving federal treasurer, said the only possible point of a royal commission into banks would be if stakeholders wanted to try and establish “personal liability for financial failures”.
He said that did not apply to Australia’s four-pillar banking system.
“If I was American I’d feel really angry that Main Street bailed out Wall Street, we didn’t have that here,” he said.
“Macquarie Fields did not bail out Martin Place”.
Mr Costello said it was up to the bank executives to engage with the community. Home. It’s a place to grow, to play, to learn and to share with the ones you love. And with an Auswide Bank Home Loan, your new home is closer than you think.