It appears like NAB is continuing to put downwards pressure on fees, with the recent announcement that it will further lower fees on accounts and card products.
Along with earlier announcements by NAB and others, this is all very welcome news. However, you can start to get a sense of the scale of the fee regime here in Australia when we see one of the big banks foregoing an alleged $110 million per year in revenue at what has routinely been called the worst financial crisis for a generation. Quite clearly, things are not so bad that they can’t afford to take a lazy $110m of the bottom line.
Now that this fee reduction program has really kicked off in earnest with the major banks, you are starting to hear them using “low fees” language in their communications, so it is obviously something that is resonating with consumers. There is still quite a long way to go, but it certainly seems like things are moving in the right direction. Unfortunately, there has not been much movement on fees and charges for businesses – a fact that is just now starting to get some public attention.
I imagine that we will see all of the Big 4 come more or less into line over the next 6 months or so on fees for retail customers. It remains an open question if any one of them will blink and start reducing fees for business customers.
M@