One Nation leader Senator Pauline Hanson has introduced the Banking System Reform (Separation of Banks) Bill 2019 into the Australian Senate, for a Glass-Steagall-style structural separation of the too-big-to-fail (TBTF) banks.
The Labor Party can no longer defer to the Hayne royal commission on whether to separate the banks. Even Paul Keating, who started bank deregulation, has called Hayne’s final report a failure on structural separation.
Above all else, the banks were desperate that Commissioner Hayne’s final report didn’t recommend structural separation; according to journalist Michael Pascoe, this was the subject of the illegal insider trading leak that caused bank shares to suddenly rise at 11:00 AM on Monday.
The 18-page bill to separate the banks that Pauline Hanson will introduce into the Senate next week will do more to fix up the banking system than anything in Kenneth Hayne’s 1,133-page final report.
Royal Commission, Glass-Steagall, Banking / Finance
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The Morrison government is already in damage control over the Hayne Royal Commission’s final report, which they will delay making public until Monday afternoon. But Australia’s government and banks are not the only ones chewing their nails in anticipation. The City of London banks are also nervous, desperate that Australia’s banking inquiry doesn’t lead to a similar inquiry in the UK. Bankers all over the world would be similarly nervous.
