That was the view of former ASIC economist and founder of Erskinomics Consulting Alex Erskine at yesterday’s 15th Annual Wraps, Platforms & Masterfunds Conference in the Hunter Valley.
“After [the next] fiasco we should have the CEO of the bank put their enforceable undertaking between their teeth and crawl naked to deliver it to ASIC,” he said.
Speaking to a room of nearly 200 delegates, Mr Erskine added that vertical integrations prevents institutions from having meaningful conversations with their customers.
“I think it’s a constraint because there is so much to defend when the empire is so large,” he said.
“It’s not clear that the industry is understanding the problems with vertical integration – nor is it making a clear case for change.”
Mr Erskine said that being vertically integrated stops the big institutions from making convincing proposals.
“If you were only running a planning or broking [business] and they were not related [it would be one thing] … but when you have the whole lot, everyone’s focus is diffused into how to measure all this,” he said.
“Being a vertically integrated industry, its not clear what the major banks are actually getting at.”
