Technology Slice Blog

Wayne Swan Unveils Banking Reforms - In the first hearing of a Senate inquiry into banking competition, Reserve governor Glenn Stevens maintained that competition was fiercer now than it was 15 years ago. He said consumers had greater choice and banks were under greater competitive pressure, but higher funding costs posed difficulties for small lenders. As the government strived to support a ''fifth pillar'' to compete against the big banks, Mr Stevens said it must be wary of any unintended consequences of helping smaller lenders, citing examples from the US subprime crisis. Advertisement: Story continues below Some moves - including providing a government guarantee to mortgage bonds - needed to be treated with great care, Mr Stevens said. Wayne Swan Unveils Banking Reforms ''When you think about extensive public intervention in housing markets, we don't need to look any further than the United States of America to see that that can go wrong if we...