Under pressure from the country's regulator for their respective banks misdemeanours, the chairmen of two of Australia's largest banks say the ubiquitous tech giants will damage the banking industry.
National Australia Bank (NAB) chairman Ken Henry and Westpac chairman Lindsay Maxsted, who were speaking at a business lunch in Sydney, said said the competition in the industry was not going to be from each other but from «the Googles and the Apples and so on.»
The two were speaking against a backdrop of a mounting push for a high-powered inquiry into Australia's highly profitable banking industry, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
Bad Bankers
Maxsted said the next wave of competition would come from outside the industry, and he said Westpac was already preparing for the threat in its hiring decisions, and investments in financial technology, or fintech.
ANZ and NAB recently agreed to pay a collective 100 million dollar penalty for their involvement in the rigging of overnight bank bill swap rates, while Westpac has been fighting the case in court.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) chair Catherine Livingstone also apologised last week to the bank's shareholders in failing to comply with anti-money laundering laws.
