Monopoly Watch is a New Zealand public policy group that studies and comments on competition issues in capital-intensive utility and commodity industries.
For many decades, New Zealand has had one of the weakest competition legal frameworks in the OECD. Monopoly Watch NZ (MWNZ) has explored, examined, and navigated the failure of New Zealand’s banking market.
The group highlighted the clear and present pressure on the Commerce Commission to publish workable solutions that would fix the broken New Zealand market and promote a fundamental rethink of social banking.
MWNZ said New Zealand capitalism needed to be saved, not tinkered with. During the market study enquiry with the Commission, substantial evidence was submitted to prove that the current industry structure was not working for consumers and suppliers.
Market Structure = Market Conduct = Outcomes, and evidence was found that supermarket chains' market structures have not served consumers, suppliers, and other stakeholders well.
Narrowing the number of players from over five to just two, the emergence of a duopoly in New Zealand has created consumer, supplier, and environmental harm. Maintaining the current structure and the level of profitability has meant perpetuating damaging conduct and behaviour.
Monopoly Watch believed the primary focus must be fixing this problem by examining various aspects, such as how market structure can be altered to give a better outcome for consumers and by tinkering and minor incremental reform into the hands of oligopolists.
Monopoly Watch New Zealand analyst Tex Edwards recently presented an enquiry into banking competition to the Finance and Expenditure Select Committee.
Core points presented to the New Zealand parliamentary enquiry into banking included:
- the gorilla is " how to fix banking”
- the level of misinformation fertilised by the banks has been off the charts
- Kiwibank won't fix it
- Fin Techs need capital
- Banks have abused their social license and exploited their failed guarantee
- Australia will not help New Zealand, and it was time to get on the ANZ Jet and do an international benchmarking tour, thereby exposing the lies the Australian banks perpetuate
- As the enquiry takes place, banks' share buybacks and monopolistic acquisitions have increased
- Structural separation of the NZ payments organisation and a breakup of ANZ and ASB is a creditable, rational, and precedent-setting way of improving consumers' interests and helping the NZ economy grow.
Monopoly Watch has aimed to advance the public interests of all Kiwis by providing evidence-based third-party commentary and policy solutions to failing and distorted market structures.
Watch the entire Monopoly Watch New Zealand analyst Tex Edwards' presentation to the Finance and Expenditure Select Committee enquiry to banking competition here
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