The New Zealand government should look at providing state-owned Kiwibank with access to more capital so that it becomes a disruptive competitor in the banking sector, the antitrust watchdog said.
The nation’s four largest banks, which are all Australian-owned, do not face strong competition when providing personal banking services, the Commerce Commission said Tuesday in Wellington in a final report on the sector.
“No new entrants have been able to meaningfully increase the competition faced by the major banks since the establishment of Kiwibank in 2001,” the report said. “Kiwibank imposes some constraint on the major banks but lacks the ...